With 'Flat 50%' Caveat, Supriya Sule Backs Centre's Delimitation Push Amid NDA Move Buzz

Supriya Sule, working president of the NCP(SP), on Saturday said her party was open to supporting the BJP-led NDA government's once-defeated Delimitation Bill if it provided for a flat 50 per cent increase in Lok Sabha seats across states, with no state-wise tweaks. The remark by Sule, whose party is currently part of the Congress-led INDIA bloc, comes as speculation grows over a merger of the two NCP factions, one of which is already in the BJP-led NDA.

Sule had floated such a formula back in July too, days before the Monsoon Session, but later called reports that her party had decided to back the bill as "incorrect".

The bill that got defeated in April did not have the flat '50 per cent' commitment that was orally made by Home Minister Amit Shah, and it could not be passed also because the government did not have the two-thirds majority needed for a constitutional amendment to change the 33 per cent women's quota provision that's tied to delimitation.

In April, after the bill's defeat, Sule had demanded that the 33 per cent quota, as granted by a 2023 law, be implemented within the existing 543 seats by removing the caveat that requires a fresh census and delimitation.

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On Saturday, Sule, whose father Sharad Pawar has been meeting the rival NCP faction leaders lately, said constituencies getting smaller would help MPs keep in closer touch with voters. Citing her Baramati constituency, Sule said its electorate had grown from about 10-12 lakh to nearly 20-22 lakh voters over the years. She said this made it "practically impossible for an MP to visit every village and ensure equitable development". Sule said the annual Member of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) fund of Rs 5 crore was not enough for an electorate that large, and that dividing constituencies had "become necessary to ensure better representation and development".

The Centre's earlier attempt failed on April 17, during a special session of Parliament. The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, sought to expand the Lok Sabha from 543 to 850 seats and operationalise 33% reservation for women through delimitation. It got 298 votes in favour and 230 against. With 528 members present and voting, the government needed 352 votes and fell 54 short. It was the first time a constitutional amendment brought by the Narendra Modi government failed to pass. After the vote, the government withdrew the Delimitation Bill, 2026, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, that were part of the legislative package.

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Government sources have said delimitation remains on the Centre's agenda, and that it wants it passed by the end of the year. The Monsoon Session has not been prorogued even three months after its last sitting, which means Parliament can be called into session on two days' notice instead of 14 required for a new session.

The arithmetic has changed since April. Twenty of the Trinamool Congress's 28 MPs have since joined a separate party which is backing the BJP-led NDA. And the DMK, which has 22 MPs, has left the INDIA bloc after the Congress chose to ally with Tamil Nadu election winner TVK.

Sule has denied any merger talks. "After my brother (Ajit Pawar, who divided the NCP) passed away, we have put a full stop to this issue from our side," she told reporters on Saturday. Sources told NDTV that Sunetra Pawar, who took over as NCP chief after her husband Ajit Pawar's death, has told BJP-led Maharashtra alliance Mahayuti's leaders that she strongly opposes a merger, though the NCP(SP) is welcome in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as a separate party.

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The rest of the Opposition has not moved much. Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram urged the DMK and the NCP (SP) to "stand firm", and warned that backing a new version of the failed bill "will be a betrayal of their own conscience that guided them in April 2026".

Rahul Gandhi has said the delimitation push itself is the problem. "What the government is proposing now has nothing to do with women's reservation. This amendment is an attempted power grab using delimitation and gerrymandering," he said in April. He has said delimitation must be based on the 2026 Census that's on, taking into account the caste data it will gather.