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Two days before a special session of Parliament, the Union government shared three bills with MPs. If passed, they would lead to political constituencies being redrawn on the basis of population data from the 2011 census.

The Constitution 131st Amendment Bill proposes to increase the strength of the Lok Sabha to 850 from 543. This will be done by amending Article 82 of the Constitution to remove the provision that froze the number of Lok Sabha seats based on the 1971 census.

The bill also proposes to allow Parliament, based on simple majority, to decide which census will serve as the basis of delimitation. While the 2026 Delimitation Bill is silent about which census will be used, the government stated that it will be based on the “latest published census”. That would mean the enumeration exercise that took place in 2011. The move is expected to reduce representation of the southern states, which have a slower population growth.

According to the proposed amendment of the 2023 Women’s Reservation Act, constituencies in the Lok Sabha and the state Assemblies will be reserved for women on rotational basis after each round of delimitation. Read on.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin warned of a massive agitation in the state if its interests were harmed in the delimitation exercise. “If anything is done that harms Tamil Nadu or that disproportionately enhances the political power of northern states, we in Tamil Nadu will not remain silent,” said the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief.

He also accused the Union government of attempting to unilaterally proceed with the exercise without consulting any political party or any state government. Read on.

Hindi belt Opposition parties support delimitation, disagree with ally MK Stalin, reports Anant Gupta

Following protests by factory workers in Noida, the Uttar Pradesh government announced an interim hike in minimum wages for skilled and semi-skilled labourers. However, workers said that the revised rates were insufficient and demanded further hikes.

Effective retrospectively from April 1, the revised wages set the minimum monthly pay at Rs 13,690 for unskilled workers, up from Rs 11,313. The pay for semi-skilled workers was increased to Rs 15,059 and Rs 16,868 for skilled workers in Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad.

The Uttar Pradesh Police also said that it had arrested more than 350 persons in connection with the workers’ protest that turned violent on Monday. Read on.

Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar resigned as the Bihar chief minister on Tuesday. Soon after, the National Democratic Alliance in the state elected Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary as its legislative party leader.

Choudhary will be the BJP’s first chief minister in Bihar. Kumar resigned from the post three days after he took the oath as a Rajya Sabha MP for the first time.

In a social media post, Kumar said that the new government in Bihar “will have my full cooperation and guidance”. Earlier on Tuesday, he recommended that the governor dissolve the Cabinet. Read on.

As Nitish Kumar quits as Bihar chief minister, what will happen to his politics of social justice? write Ashwani Kumar

Vinesh Chandel, director of political consultancy I-PAC, was remanded to the custody of the Enforcement Directorate for 10 days in a money-laundering case linked to an alleged coal smuggling operation in West Bengal. The court said that the accused was evasive during the investigation and may tamper with evidence.

The ED has alleged that a hawala operator linked to an alleged coal smuggling syndicate facilitated transactions worth tens of crores of rupees to Indian PAC Consulting Private Limited, the registered entity of I-PAC.

The political consultancy is managing the Trinamool Congress’ election campaign for the upcoming Assembly polls, which will be held in two phases on April 23 and April 29. Read on.

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