Delimitation exercise explained: How will this impact southern states, Lok Sabha, Parliament and the Constitution?

The story so far: The delimitation of constituencies for the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies is to be carried out on the basis of the first Census after 2026. The 2021 Census was originally postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently due to delays on the part of the Central government.

Delimitation means the process of fixing the number of seats and boundaries of territorial constituencies in each State for the Lok Sabha and Legislative assemblies. It also includes determining the seats to be reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) in these houses. Article 82 and 170 of the Constitution provide that the number of seats in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative assemblies as well as its division into territorial constituencies shall be readjusted after each Census. This ‘delimitation process’ is performed by the ‘Delimitation Commission’ that is set up under an act of Parliament. Such an exercise was carried out after the 1951, 1961 and 1971 Census.