New Delimitation and Women’s Reservation Bill: Constitutional Interlinkages and Policy Challenges
New Delimitation and Women’s Reservation Bill New Delimitation and Women’s Reservation Bill: Constitutional Interlinkages and Policy Challenges Prayaga Venkata Rama Vinayak May 12, 2026 Democracy and Institutions, Public Policy, Women Empowerment The defeated Delimitation Bill has been at the centre of political debates, since the last delimitation exercise, which was based on 1971 census, when the population was less by 39% than it is now. Delimitation is the process of redrawing the boundaries of parliamentary and assembly constituencies. This process is constitutionally mandated to ensure equal representation based on population. Article 82 clearly empowers parliament to enact the Delimitation Act to redefine constituency boundaries after every census. So far, the delimitation exercises have been conducted 4 times: 1952, 1963, 1973 and 2002. The delimitation processes have been relatively smooth in the past. In 1976, when the 42nd Constitution Amendment Act was passed, the total number of seats was frozen to the current number of seats, based on the 1971 census. This was done to encourage population control measures and was also brought about by keeping the interests of the southern states in mind, which have effectively implemented the population control measures among other factors like faster economic growth. This aimed to ensure the best performing states in terms of population control would not lose in terms of representation. Initially, this freeze was applicable until 2001 census. Subsequently, the Union Government had enacted the 84th Constitutional Amendment Act, which extended the freeze till 2026 census. It is pertinent to look at the long-overdue women’s reservation bill to critically analyse the delimitation bill, as both are inter-related. The current women’s reservation bill has been demanded for almost 30 years. The women reservation bill mandates 33% of total seats in Lok Sabha and state assemblies to women as their population have crossed over 50% in the country. The first women reservation bill was introduced in 1996 by HD Deva Gowda’s government. But this faced huge criticism from the opposition who demanded quota within the quota, and finally, the bill lapsed. Between the years of 1998 to 2004, there were several attempts made by Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s NDA Government to re-introduce the bill, but it did not materialise due to a lack of support in the parliament. In 2008, the UPA government tried to introduce the 108th Constitutional Amendment bill, which was passed by the Rajya Sabha but failed in the Lok Sabha. The final breakthrough was achieved by Modi’s government when 128th Constitutional Amendment Act was passed in 2023. This women’s reservation is applicable to the current SC/ST seats as well. The reserved constituencies change rotationally over a period of 15 years. But this Act was not immediately enforceable, as it depended on the 2026 census or after the completion of the delimitation process. Technically, after the 2026 census, both women’s reservation and delimitation are unavoidable. The reason for the current stalemate is the Modi government’s intention to implement the women’s reservation before 2029, which the opposition fears might generate some positive sentiments among women voters towards the ruling party. If political mileage is the main factor for derailing the implementation of women’s reservation now, women may be forced to wait till 2034 general election, when the next opportune moment would be available. In that context, the 131st Constitutional Amendment Bill to fast-track women’s reservation process by linking it with the delimitation based on the 2011 census data is timely and welcome. The opposition opposed delimitation based on 2011 census data, as they rightly worried about the decrease of the parliamentary representation of the southern states, where they are politically stronger comparatively. However, the Union Government assuaged the apprehensions by assuring that there will be no decrease in current representation in the parliament for the southern states, by proposing a proportionate 50% increase uniformly for all states. If the current 543 seats are to be increased to 850 seats as per the 50% formula, the individual state’s seats, including the southern states, will remain unchanged, as shown in the below table. The very slight deviation arises due to the rounding off, as decimal number of seats cannot be increased. Southern States Current No. of Seats in Lok Sabha Current % of Representation in Lok Sabha Proposed No. of Seats in Lok Sabha Proposed % of Representation in Lok Sabha Andhra Pradesh 25 4.60 38 4.47 Telangana 17 3.13 26 3.06 Tamil Nadu 39 7.18 59 6.94 Karnataka 28 5.16 42 4.94 Kerala 20 3.68 30 3.53 Average Representation of Southern States 4.75 4.59 Total Representation of Southern States 129 23.76 195 22.94 Source: Authors Calculations Unfortunately, the delimitation bill introduced in April 2026 did not detail the methodology of delimitation. The verbal assurances do very little when it comes to enforcing. We have seen instances like the announcement of special status to Andhra Pradesh by then Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh in Parliament, which never fructified on the ground. The ruling establishment also argues that the delimitation increases productivity of legislatures as they will have less average population they are representing. It also allows diverse people to have a voice in the parliament. Delimitation is very much essential which in turn triggers the much-awaited women reservation in Parliament. These historic and game changing moments can be achieved with consensus from all stakeholders. The recent rejection of the bill allows our policy makers to rethink and re work on the short comings in the current draft with wider consultations across the country. The Author is Public Policy Fellow at AgaPuram Policy Research Centre, Erode The views expressed by the author are personal and does not reflect or represent the views of the AgaPuram Policy Research Centre.