M’laya may get one additional parliamentary seat, reserved for women
From CK Nayak
NEW DELHI, April 15: Amid the cacophony over the delimitation of Lok Sabha seats to accommodate 33% women MPs, the concerns of southern states — which fear losing out to the more populous northern states — have dominated discussions.
However, the seven smaller states of the Northeast are likely to see only marginal gains, with most gaining just one additional seat each. Assam, on the other hand, stands to increase its strength significantly from the present 14 to 21 seats.
The total number of Lok Sabha seats across India is projected to rise from 543 to between 816 and 850. Every state is expected to see a roughly 50% increase in its seat count to implement the women’s reservation bill, which is set to be introduced in Parliament on Thursday.
The key concern, however, lies in the use of the 2011 Census as the baseline. This will favour the northern states with higher populations, while giving comparatively fewer seats to southern states that have successfully controlled their population growth.
Numerically, Meghalaya, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and Tripura — which currently have two Lok Sabha seats each — will gain one seat to reach three, with these additional seats likely to be reserved for women. The smaller states of Mizoram, Nagaland, and Sikkim will also see their seats increase by one, taking them to two each.
In contrast, Assam, which has a population larger than the combined total of the other northeastern states, will gain seven seats, taking its total to 21. Most of these additional seats are expected to be allocated for women.
While every state is likely to see a proportional increase of roughly 50% in its seat count, in absolute terms, most Northeast states will gain only one seat each.
Delimitation exercises in four of these states — Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Nagaland — were deferred in 2008 due to security concerns and disputes over the Census data. The current exercise aims to resolve these long-standing issues while also paving the way for the implementation of the Women’s Reservation Act, 2023.
If the Lok Sabha’s strength is expanded to 850 seats and allocated on the basis of the 2011 Census population — as envisaged in the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill and the companion Delimitation Bill to be tabled in Parliament — the southern states and the Northeast would witness a relative erosion in their share of parliamentary representation. The Hindi heartland states of northern India would emerge as the overwhelming beneficiaries.
The two Bills, to be introduced in the Parliament session beginning Thursday, seek to achieve three key objectives: a) Raise the Lok Sabha ceiling from 543 to 850 seats (815 from states and 35 from Union Territories); b) Replace the constitutional freeze that pegged seat allocation to the 1971 Census with an open-ended formula, allowing Parliament to choose the census basis through ordinary law; and c) Constitute a Delimitation Commission that would use the latest published Census — currently the 2011 Census — to redraw boundaries and reallocate seats.
The stated purpose is to operationalise women’s reservation under the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023. However, the Bills contain no mechanism to guarantee existing seat proportions.
Article 81(2)(a), which remains unchanged, mandates population-proportional allocation rather than a uniform percentage increase. In other words, delimitation will be carried out strictly on the basis of population proportions according to the latest available Census, which is currently the 2011 Census.
