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Delimitation of Constituencies in Assam
January 3 , 2023
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- The Election Commission of India (ECI) recently commenced the process of delimitation of state assembly and parliamentary constituencies of Assam.
- The last delimitation in Assam happened in 1976.
- The current delimitation exercise is being conducted based on the 1971 Census.
- Delimitation is the process of redrawing boundaries of state assembly seats and the Lok Sabha seats to represent the changing population numbers.
- The main purpose of the delimitation exercise is to ensure equal representation to equal segments of a population.
- Since the population does not increase uniformly, delimitation reflects the changes in the distribution of the population over a period of time.
- The Delimitation Commission is an independent commission responsible for conducting delimitation exercises.
- It is set up by the Central Government under the Delimitation Commission Act.
- This commission jointly works with the Election Commission of India (ECI) to conduct the delimitation.
- It includes a retired Supreme Court Judge, the Chief Election Commissioner and the respective state’s State Election Commissioners.
- Article 82 of the Constitution requires the Indian Parliament to enact a Delimitation Act after every Census.
- Once this Act is in force, the Central Government must set up a Delimitation Commission.
- A total of 4 Delimitation Commissions have been set up in the past (1952, 1963, 1973 and 2002).
- The 2002 Act did not make any changes in the total number of Lok Sabha seats or their apportionment between various states.
- It left out Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur from the delimitation exercise due to security concerns.
- The Indian Government reconstituted the Delimitation Commission for these 4 states and the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir in 2020.
- The last delimitation exercise that changed the state-wise composition of the Lok Sabha happened in 1976.
- It was conducted based on the 1971 census.
- The delimitation exercises were not conducted frequently in the recent past.
- This is because the Indian Constitution mandates that the number of Lok Sabha seats allocated to a state should be (as far as it is achievable) same for all states.
- To address this issue, the Indian Constitution was amended in 1976 to suspend the delimitation until 2001.
- Another amendment was enacted to delay the delimitation exercise further until 2026.
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