How Tamil Nadu got 234 Assembly seats: The Delimitation Commission’s calculated departure

Have you ever wondered how and when the Tamil Nadu Assembly’s strength was fixed at 234 seats? This number was arrived at by the Delimitation Commission, which undertook the post-1961 Census redistribution of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats.

Under Article 170 of the Constitution and Section 8(b) of the Delimitation Commission Act, 1962, the number of seats in a State Assembly must be an integral multiple of the number of Lok Sabha seats allotted to that State.

At the time, 14 States together accounted for 481 parliamentary seats. Madras (as Tamil Nadu was known then) had 41. In addition, Jammu and Kashmir had six seats, the Naga Hills-Tuensang Area one seat, the North East Frontier Tract one seat and the Union Territories 18 seats, taking the overall total to 507.

The Delimitation Commission — chaired by Justice J.L. Kapur, with C.P. Sinha and K.V.K. Sundaram as members — noted that Article 81(1) fixed the maximum number of directly elected Lok Sabha members at 500. This meant the maximum seats available for allocation among the 14 States was 493.

“The total population of these States has increased very considerably during the last ten years with the result that the average population per parliamentary constituency has increased from 732,654 in 1951 to 889,257 in 1961. Further, the increase is far from being uniform for all the States,” the Commission recorded.

After reviewing demographic changes revealed by the 1961 Census, the Commission concluded retaining the existing 481 seats would disproportionately penalise some larger States. Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Madras would each have lost three seats, while Bihar would have lost one.

To mitigate this, the Commission increased the total from 481 to 490. Even then, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Madras lost two seats each, while Bihar avoided a loss. The Commission recorded that even raising the number to the constitutional ceiling of 493 would not have altered the losses faced by those States.

Accordingly, by Order No. 1, Madras’ Lok Sabha strength was reduced from 41 to 39. The next step was to determine the size of the Madras Legislative Assembly.

At that time, the State followed a multiple of five — meaning each Lok Sabha constituency corresponded to five Assembly segments. Applying that formula mechanically would have resulted in: 39 × 5 = 195 Assembly seats.

However, the Madras Assembly then had 206 elected members. Retaining the existing multiple would therefore have reduced the Assembly to 195 seats, a significant contraction in representation.

The Commission examined whether multiples required revision across States. It noted while multiples broadly tended to rise as population declined, the pattern was not uniformly followed. After due consideration, it decided to retain the existing multiple in all States, except Madras.

Explaining its reasoning in its August 24, 1963 order, the Commission stated: “The Legislative Assembly of this State has at present 206 elective seats. Considering that its quota in the House of the People will for the future be reduced by two we think it proper to raise its multiple from 5 to 6 and to assign 234 seats to its Legislative Assembly.”

The revised formula thus became: 39 × 6 = 234. Instead of shrinking, the Assembly expanded. This helped maintain effective representation and legislative balance.

Other States saw no such alteration at the time. West Bengal retained its multiple of seven, resulting in 280 Assembly seats. Kerala, which then had 19 Lok Sabha seats, retained its multiple of seven, resulting in 133 seats. Assam retained nine, resulting in 126 seats. Uttar Pradesh continued with a multiple of five, producing 425 seats.

The decision was not arbitrary. It was a structural adjustment designed to preserve proportionality between parliamentary and Assembly representation while preventing a drastic contraction of the State legislature. Six decades later, the 234-seat structure remains unchanged. The majority mark of 118, alliance arithmetic, constituency size and electoral strategy in Tamil Nadu continue to operate within the framework created by that 1963 decision.