A delimitation red flag—J&K, Assam lessons

Concerns and Solutions
• Proposal to freeze parliamentary seats but increase Assembly seats in States with growing population.
• The proposal is more democratic as Members of the Legislative Assembly represent constituents on national policy.
• Other ways to address fears of an expanded power imbalance include redistribution of Rajya Sabha seats to northern, central, eastern, western, and southern States.

Case Study: Jammu and Kashmir
• Two State-level delimitations in 2022 and 2023 have been carried out, each indicating potential pitfalls for the 2026 exercise.
• Jammu and Kashmir delimitation was criticized for creating new constituencies with no administrative or geographic sense.
• The Delimitation Commission used communal criteria for demarcation, creating small population constituencies alongside large population ones.

Assam Delimitation
• The number of Assembly seats was frozen, but four districts were pre-emptively folded back into the districts from which they had originally been separated.
• The merger led to a loss of as many as 10 Muslim majority constituencies, while Hindu and tribal seats increased.
• The Assam delimitation also created constituencies of a vastly different population size.

Danger of Polarisation
• The Opposition has not focused on this danger as all Opposition-ruled States have large minority populations, mostly Muslim.
• The communal demarcation of constituencies is likely to polarize voters even in the southern States.
• The Union administration’s policies in border States will not be replicated in the heartland.
• The power imbalance between the large northern States and the rest that will result from a purely population-based delimitation is a clear and present danger.
• The communal demarcation of electoral constituencies threatens the unity of the country in different ways.