The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly has passed a resolution urging the Centre to permanently freeze the number of Lok Sabha seats at the existing number of 543 and maintain the present State-wise distribution of those seats. It also advocated the preservation of current ratio of 2.2:1 between Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha seats. It sought the implementation of one-third reservation of seats for women in the Lok Sabha from the 2029 election onwards, without linking it to any future census or delimitation.
Delimitation means the process of fixing the number of seats and boundaries of the territorial constituencies in each State for the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies. This ‘Delimitation process’ is performed by ‘Delimitation Commission’ that is set up under an act of Parliament. ‘Democracy’ means ‘rule or government by the people’. It follows that the government is elected by a majority with the broad principle of ‘one citizen-one vote-one value’. However, this bill was defeated in the Lok Sabha. First, it would not alter the current proportion of representation of various States/Union Territories in the Lok Sabha. The issue arises as the democratic and federal principles seem to be at loggerheads in the delimitation exercise as currently envisaged. However, they can be harmoniously reconciled by giving equal importance to both. The main work of a Member of Parliament is to legislate on the ‘Union List’ subjects such as defence, external affairs, railways, telecommunication, taxation etc. and hold the Central government accountable. A majority of the schemes of the Central Government are implemented only by the State governments. This would maintain and uphold the federal principle. The number of MLAs in each State may be increased in line with the current population to address the democratic representational requirement.
The last time when the number of seats were determined was on the basis of 1971 census population. Article 81(2) of the Constitution provides that the ratio between the number of seats and population of a State, shall as far as practicable be same for all the States. The number of seats in the Lok Sabha based on 1971 census was fixed at 543, when the population was 54.8 crores. This broadly translated to an average population of 10.1 lakhs per constituency. This was done through the 42nd Amendment Act till the year 2000 and was extended by the 84th amendment act till 2026. This number will have to be readjusted based on the first census after 2026 which would be the next census in 2027. In 2023, through the 106th Constitutional Amendment, the Parliament had provided for one-third reservation of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies. This would be through delimitation based on the census in 2027. The Union government had introduced the Constitution 131st Amendment Bill in April 2026 to increase the maximum number of Lok Sabha seats from existing 550 to 850. The Home Minister made an oral assurance in the Parliament that the number of seats in each State/Union Territory would be increased by 50% on a pro-rata basis. There are expectations that the government may introduce the bill again, in the near future with explicit provisions for 50% increase in seats for all States/Union Territories on a pro-rata basis. The are two main arguments in support of the proposal for 50% pro-rata increase. Second, it would enable seamless reservation of one-third seats for women with the additional 272 seats being reserved for women out of the enlarged house of around 816 seats. Hence, the number of MPs in Lok Sabha may be frozen at the present number of 543, which would ensure no disruption to the current representation of various States. One-third reservation for women can be provided out of the existing 543 seats.
However, it has been frozen as per 1971 census in order to encourage population control measures so that States with higher population growth do not end up having higher number of seats. Because of additional MPs including allocation for the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds needs to be borne in mind, finally, the increased cost to the exchequer.
