Foreseeing a rise in the number of Lok Sabha seats in north, west, and central India, and drop in their number in south, east and north-east, if the next delimitation exercise is carried out on the basis of population, political commentator Sandeep Shastri strongly advocated the need for retaining the existing proportion of Lok Sabha seats allotted to each State.
A discussion on “Representation in Parliament” as part of the two-day national conference on Delimitation: Inter-State Asymmetry and its implications organised by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Research and Extension Centre, University of Mysore.
Participating in the discussion Prof. Shastri, director of academics, Nitte Education Trust, said percentage of Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Haryana will go up while the percentage of seats in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Kerala and Telangana will come down if the population figures as per the 2021 census is taken into account.
If the Lok Sabha continues to have 545 seats after a delimitation based on 2021 population figures, a total of 25 seats lost by states in south, east and north-east India will be gained by States in north, west and central India, he said.
However, he pointed out that as per the 84th Constitutional Amendment the next delimitation exercise can take into account only the census conducted after 2026, which can be 2031 census figures.
Even though the new parliament building has a total of 888 seats for Lok Sabha members, Prof. Shastri said there was a need to maintain the existing proportion of Lok Sabha seats for each state like the rule that prevailed during the previous delimitation exercise of 2002.
So, the number of Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka remained 28. So, was the case in Kerala, where the seats remained 20, he said. The delimitation exercise was limited to altering the boundaries of Lok Sabha constituencies within a state, leading to a rise in the number of seats allotted to Bengaluru.
If the number of seats allotted to each State remains the same, the average voter in a state with increased population like Rajasthan would be 23 lakh while it would be around 15 lakh in a State like Kerala. The difference, however, does not appear to be a major aberration, he argued.
Even if the number of seats in the Lok Sabha is increased to 888, the proportion of seats allotted to a state should remain the same, he said. “For, as time passes, the State has emerged as the centre of politics for common people and not the Centre”, he said. He also warned that some union territories may not have even a single Lok Sabha seat if the delimitation exercise strictly went by population.
Politics Of Domination
Prof. Shastri also wondered if the numbers-based delimitation was a reflection of the politics of domination that the country was currently witnessing.
For, the beneficiaries of such a numbers-based delimitation would largely be the Hindi-speaking States and the losers will be the non-Hindi speaking States. “When we challenge this, we will be challenging the politics of domination”, he said.
He also referred to the poor record of participation by members from south-Indian States in the debates on the floor of the parliament and identified language to be one of the barriers for the same. Though representatives from south-India can speak well in their native languages, they find speaking in English or Hindi in the parliament a challenge.
Chairman of Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission Jayaprakash Hegde, who also spoke at the discussion, raised the issue of higher economic contribution to the Government of India by south-Indian States than north Indian States. But, the north-Indian States enjoy a higher strength in the Lok Sabha, he said.
Former professor of Political Science, University of Mysore, Y. Rafeek Ahmed, chaired the discussion.
