Modi Govt Wants to Increase Lok Sabha Seats from 543 to 850; Trump, Modi Stress Importance of Keeping Hormuz Strait Open; Govt's Three Delimitation Bills Make Parliament and India's Future Uncertain
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Snapshot of the day
April 14, 2026
Sidharth Bhatia
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that he received a phone call from US President Donald Trump and that the two of them “stressed the importance of keeping the Strait of Hormuz open and secure”, apart from discussing the situation in West Asia as well as the “substantial progress achieved in our bilateral cooperation in various sectors”. Their conversation comes amid the US’s blockade of the strait key to global energy flows being enforced after Washington and Tehran failed to reach an agreement after peace talks in Islamabad over the weekend. The exact status of the blockade – applying to vessels moving in and out of Iranian ports, and which elicited warnings of retaliation from Iran – remains unclear as tracking data shows that a number of vessels have passed through the strait, including some that left Iran, the New York Times reports.
Even as the future of the two-week ceasefire remains in limbo after talks in Islamabad did not produce any outcome, Reuters reports citing sources that negotiators from both sides could return to the Pakistani capital as early as later this week to resume talks. An Iranian official told the news agency that a proposal has been sent to the US and Iran to send their delegations once again.
Today the Modi government announced that it seeks to increase the number of seats in the Lok Sabha from the existing 543 to 850 through the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill that parliament is set to discuss starting Thursday in connection with the early implementation of women’s reservation. The Bill says that seats will be redistributed among states and Union territories based on data from the now-15-year-old 2011 census and will do away with the clause in the women’s reservation Act of 2023 linking the move to the ongoing 2027 census. Opposition parties’ demand for an all-party meeting on the proposed changes after the assembly elections are over was rejected.
Nitish Kumar resigned as chief minister of Bihar today, ending his nearly two-decade-long stint in office. Samrat Choudhary was elected leader of the BJP’s legislature party this afternoon, paving the way for him to become the state’s first CM from the saffron party. This, writes Sravasti Dasgupta, marks the “final move for a play that started during the November 2025 Bihar assembly elections”, where the BJP “made little effort to hide that it was waiting in the wings” during what was widely speculated to be Nitish’s “swan song”.
Beginning with a familiar law-and-order playbook, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was quick to invoke a vague “Naxalism” angle after violence broke out during a workers’ protest in Noida’s industrial belt on Monday. By pointing to shadowy “external elements” and alleged instigators, the administration appeared more intent on casting suspicion than addressing the simmering discontent among labourers, effectively framing the unrest as a conspiracy rather than a consequence of longstanding grievances. What had started as two days of peaceful dharnas by contractual workers soon spiralled into clashes, with stone-pelting, vandalism, and vehicles set ablaze. Only after
