Delimitation reset to redraw India's electoral contours

The government is set to constitute a new Delimitation Commission to redraw constituencies and increase Lok Sabha and assembly seats based on the 2011 census.

- Saubhadra Chatterji

The exercise could significantly expand the strength of Parliament and state assemblies, with the Lok Sabha ceiling under Article 81 raised by 55% to 850 from the current 550.

The delimitation will also operationalise, for the first time, one-third reservation for women in Parliament and state assemblies — a long-pending plan approved in 2023.

“The existing allocation of seats... is based on the population figures published as per 1971 census and division of territorial constituencies is based on the population figures published as per 2001 census. The growth of population thereafter, across different constituencies...along with migration...have resulted in varying density of population in electoral constituencies,” law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said in the Delimitation Bill, 2026.

Under the new framework, women’s reserved seats will be allotted by rotation.

“Seats reserved for women in the House of the People and the Legislative Assemblies of the States, including women belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, shall be allotted by rotation to different constituencies,” the bill states. It further clarifies that seats reserved for women within SC/ST categories will rotate within those constituencies.