By calling for an all-party meeting on March 5 to discuss the delimitation exercise, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has sought to stir up a national debate. Delimitation, as an exercise, has not seen any increase in the legislative seats since 1973, having been frozen as per the 1971 Census for parity in population growth across States. This was done to prevent States with a higher population growth from getting “rewarded” with a higher number of representatives at the cost of other States with better health indices and lower growth. The 84th constitutional Amendment had stipulated that the delimitation exercise would be based on the first Census after 2026. Is the Union government inexplicably delaying the Census exercise to allow for the delimitation exercise to be held earlier? In the normal scheme of things, the exercise would have been done after the 2031 Census, but it is now possible after 2026 once the Census (due in 2021), is conducted.

The concern of Tamil Nadu that the exercise could hurt its representation in Parliament is legitimate if the Centre intends the process to be only proportionally representative of each State’s population. This is illustrated in the population growth rates (1971-2024) in Tamil Nadu and undivided Bihar. The electorate, for which recent data is available, grew by 171% in the former as against 233% in the latter, while they had a comparable number of Lok Sabha MPs (39 versus 54, including Jharkhand). If delimitation was held and constituencies redrawn to match population growth, and even if the overall Lok Sabha tally was increased, the final number for Tamil Nadu would clearly be much lower than Bihar’s. Other States with reduced fertility rates, such as Kerala and Karnataka, will also be affected. Home Minister Amit Shah has said that there will be no “reduction on a pro-rata basis” for Southern States and that they would get their “rightful share” but there has been little clarity on whether this would mean that their proportion of representatives will be retained after delimitation. The significant increase in population since 1973 should lead to an increased number of representatives, and, therefore, a higher number of seats, especially in north India’s highly populated States. Yet, the equally important principle of federalism should suggest the need for the proportions of representation to be maintained to keep the balance of power intact across States. More importantly, the government must expedite the Census just to allay concerns that it has been delayed to facilitate an earlier and controversial delimitation. A nation striving to reach the higher pedestals of world power cannot afford to delay the basic exercise of counting the number of its own people.