Thinking beyond population count

The discourse on delimitation and financial devolution has caused an uproar in Parliament and some State Assemblies and poses a threat to the federal character of our nation. The history of the delimitation exercise in India during 1951-71 indicates that the number of Lok Sabha seats was increased in response to the population increase that resulted in the population representation per seat. This rose from 7.3 lakh population per Lok Sabha seat in 1951 to 10.1 lakh population per seat in 1971, when the total number of seats reached the current size of 543. Considering the trend of increasing the number of seats with the rising population, the total number of seats in accordance with the projected population size in 2026 amounts to 753 and the population representation per seat will be around 20 lakh. Further, even maintaining the status quo may require a proportionate rise in the allocation of seats once the overall target is decided with an aggregate norm of population representation per seat.