Pranab bats for raising LS strength to 1,000, cautions against majoritarianism

Former president Pranab Mukherjee on Monday pitched for raising the number of Lok Sabha seats to 1,000 from the existing 543 and for a corresponding increase in Rajya Sabha's strength, arguing that India has a "disproportionately large size" of electorate for elected representatives.

Delivering the second Atal Vihari Vajpayee memorial lecture organised by India Foundation here, he also cautioned parties in power against "majoritarianism", saying that people may have given them a numerical majority, but a majority of voters has never supported one party.

"This message of the Indian electorate has never been clearly understood by political players. That is why we think we can do anything and everything when we have an overwhelming majority in the legislature. But that should not be the case," he said, asserting that people have often punished such incumbents in the past.

"A numerical majority in elections gives you the right to make a stable government. The lack of popular majority ...