Delimitation : Draw the lines on land, not on people
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Dr Rajkumar Ranjan Singh
The ‘delimitation’ debate begins in Manipur; here is a fact that tends to get lost in the argument. The Constituency boundaries of the State have not changed since 1973. When Manipur’s current Assembly map was drawn, the State’s total population was hardly 11 lakh. Today it is approximately 33 lakh. The State had 9 districts when those Constituency boundaries were fixed. Now it has 16.
There is widespread misconception that Manipur’s Constituency map was last revised through a 2007 notification. In fact, the De- limitation Commission constituted in 2002 did not undertake any work in Manipur. By a Presidential Order dated 8th February 2008, the entire delimitation exercise for Manipur was deferred under Section 10A of the Delimitation Act, citing security reasons. The 1973 delimitation–based on the 1971 Census –continues till date.
India made a deliberate political choice in 1976, during the Emergency, to freeze the total number of Assembly and Parliamentary seats in each State based on the 1971 Census. The reasoning was sound at that time; States with high population growth should not automatically gain more Parliamentary seats. The 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act froze the seat numbers, and later the 48th Amendment Act of 2002 extended the freeze by another 25 years.
India’s 16th National Census was formally notified by the Ministry of Home Affairs on 16th June 2025, with population enumeration scheduled for March 2027. Manipur, like most Indian States, delimitation process will start after the census.
The 128th Constitutional Amendment of 2023 – the Women's Reservation Act –adds another layer of urgency. It mandates that one-third of all Assembly and Parliamentary seats be reserved for women (may be on notation basis). It must be in conformity with first delimitation exercise following the Census 2027.
Manipur valley covers roughly 10 percent of Manipur’s land area and has 40 Assembly seats. The hills cover 90 percent of the land and have 20 seats. This was a ratio calibrated on 1971 population figures. Since then, hill district populations have in several areas grown at rates significantly exceeding valley demographic growth (needs to examine the issues of migration and artificial demographic growth seriously). Meanwhile, Mani- pur’s district map has been completely transformed. From 9 districts in 1973, the State now has 16 – with new districts carved precisely to address adminis- trative gaps and demographic realities that the old map could not accommodate. But the Constituency map has not changed.
Census 2027 will do something no census since 1931 has done: it will count every caste and community in India. In Manipur, this means that the precise population of every Scheduled Tribe or Scheduled Caste in every district will be known at the local or village level. Today, decisions about which Constituencies to be reserved for SC/ST will rest on the majority criteria in each natural habitation.
Population enumeration begins in March 2027. Primary Census Abstracts at the village level should be available by late 2027 or early 2028. A focused and well-prepared Delimitation Commission could complete its work for Manipur by 2029. The window is real. The Constitutional mandate is clear. The only question is whether the political will and institutional preparations are in place to seize it.
History gives Manipur both a warning and an opportunity. The warning is that delimitation, conducted carelessly or under political pressure, can jeopardize democratic paradigm of the State. The ethnic tensions that have periodically torn Manipur’s social fabric are in part instigated by an electoral geography and co- mmunity geography. The opportunity is to break that cycle.
The natural landscape principle of delimitation offers exactly that possibility. Instead of drawing Constituency boundaries along the line of who lives where, draw them along the lines of where rivers flow and ridges rise. Manipur’s natural geography suggests five broad landscape zones that could serve as the building blocks of a new constituency map. The Manipur Valley – the alluvial plain surrounding the Imphal River and Loktak Lake – forms a natural first zone. The hill quadrants – northern (the Barail Range and Barak headwaters), eastern (the Naga Hills and Chind-win tributaries), south- eas- tern (the Tengnoupal hills and border ranges), and southern (the Chura-chand-pur plateau and the Tuivai basin) – form the remaining four. These are Manipur’s permanent, natural, community-blind geo- graphical settings.
With this approach, Manipur’s Assembly seats could expand from 60 to 72 seats, proportionate to its population growth since 2001. Reserved seats for Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes would be allocated based on the precise enumeration data of the Census 2027 – distributed across all landscape zones, not connected to a single area or to a specific community. This is not idealism. It is the application of an established global principle of electoral geography to a state whose experience of community- based delimitation has been seriously contested. Geography does not take sides. That is its democratic virtue.
Three safeguards must accompany this process. First, all maps, population data and draft boundaries must be published openly in a digital format so that all citizens can see. Second, public hearings must be conducted in local languages. Third, and most importantly, the Delimitation Commission must formally declare that it will not entertain any objection or proposal that seeks to change a natural boundary on grounds of ethnic composition and community identity. Natural habitation and geography must be the only legitimate grounds for delimitation.
Manipur has waited more than fifty years for a delimitation which can actually reflect true demography and geography. The constitutional machinery is now in motion. Census 2027 is some months away. Just after the Census, the Delimi- tation Commission’s work may start in 2028 and conclude by 2029.
What is required now is clarity of purpose and honesty of process. The Census 2027 must be the valid demographic foundation. Na- tural geographical setting– and not community settlement patterns – should be the valid boundary methodology. The electoral chaos of the past fifty years, must be corrected by pure data and actual geography rather than by political calculation.
Manipur’s hills and valley deserve an electoral map drawn in the twenty-first century, not the one inherited from 1973. Every election held under the old map sounds unfair today. A genuine census followed by a fair delimitation will do justice to the next generation. It must be done right – on the land, not on the people.
The ‘delimitation’ debate begins in Manipur; here is a fact that tends to get lost in the argument. The Constituency boundaries of the State have not changed since 1973. When Manipur’s current Assembly map was drawn, the State’s total population was hardly 11 lakh. Today it is approximately 33 lakh. The State had 9 districts when those Constituency boundaries were fixed. Now it has 16.
There is widespread misconception that Manipur’s Constituency map was last revised through a 2007 notification. In fact, the De- limitation Commission constituted in 2002 did not undertake any work in Manipur. By a Presidential Order dated 8th February 2008, the entire delimitation exercise for Manipur was deferred under Section 10A of the Delimitation Act, citing security reasons. The 1973 delimitation–based on the 1971 Census –continues till date.
India made a deliberate political choice in 1976, during the Emergency, to freeze the total number of Assembly and Parliamentary seats in each State based on the 1971 Census. The reasoning was sound at that time; States with high population growth should not automatically gain more Parliamentary seats. The 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act froze the seat numbers, and later the 48th Amendment Act of 2002 extended the freeze by another 25 years.
India’s 16th National Census was formally notified by the Ministry of Home Affairs on 16th June 2025, with population enumeration scheduled for March 2027. Manipur, like most Indian States, delimitation process will start after the census.
The 128th Constitutional Amendment of 2023 – the Women's Reservation Act –adds another layer of urgency. It mandates that one-third of all Assembly and Parliamentary seats be reserved for women (may be on notation basis). It must be in conformity with first delimitation exercise following the Census 2027.
Manipur valley covers roughly 10 percent of Manipur’s land area and has 40 Assembly seats. The hills cover 90 percent of the land and have 20 seats. This was a ratio calibrated on 1971 population figures. Since then, hill district populations have in several areas grown at rates significantly exceeding valley demographic growth (needs to examine the issues of migration and artificial demographic growth seriously). Meanwhile, Mani- pur’s district map has been completely transformed. From 9 districts in 1973, the State now has 16 – with new districts carved precisely to address adminis- trative gaps and demographic realities that the old map could not accommodate. But the Constituency map has not changed.
Census 2027 will do something no census since 1931 has done: it will count every caste and community in India. In Manipur, this means that the precise population of every Scheduled Tribe or Scheduled Caste in every district will be known at the local or village level. Today, decisions about which Constituencies to be reserved for SC/ST will rest on the majority criteria in each natural habitation.
Population enumeration begins in March 2027. Primary Census Abstracts at the village level should be available by late 2027 or early 2028. A focused and well-prepared Delimitation Commission could complete its work for Manipur by 2029. The window is real. The Constitutional mandate is clear. The only question is whether the political will and institutional preparations are in place to seize it.
History gives Manipur both a warning and an opportunity. The warning is that delimitation, conducted carelessly or under political pressure, can jeopardize democratic paradigm of the State. The ethnic tensions that have periodically torn Manipur’s social fabric are in part instigated by an electoral geography and co- mmunity geography. The opportunity is to break that cycle.
The natural landscape principle of delimitation offers exactly that possibility. Instead of drawing Constituency boundaries along the line of who lives where, draw them along the lines of where rivers flow and ridges rise. Manipur’s natural geography suggests five broad landscape zones that could serve as the building blocks of a new constituency map. The Manipur Valley – the alluvial plain surrounding the Imphal River and Loktak Lake – forms a natural first zone. The hill quadrants – northern (the Barail Range and Barak headwaters), eastern (the Naga Hills and Chind-win tributaries), south- eas- tern (the Tengnoupal hills and border ranges), and southern (the Chura-chand-pur plateau and the Tuivai basin) – form the remaining four. These are Manipur’s permanent, natural, community-blind geo- graphical settings.
With this approach, Manipur’s Assembly seats could expand from 60 to 72 seats, proportionate to its population growth since 2001. Reserved seats for Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes would be allocated based on the precise enumeration data of the Census 2027 – distributed across all landscape zones, not connected to a single area or to a specific community. This is not idealism. It is the application of an established global principle of electoral geography to a state whose experience of community- based delimitation has been seriously contested. Geography does not take sides. That is its democratic virtue.
Three safeguards must accompany this process. First, all maps, population data and draft boundaries must be published openly in a digital format so that all citizens can see. Second, public hearings must be conducted in local languages. Third, and most importantly, the Delimitation Commission must formally declare that it will not entertain any objection or proposal that seeks to change a natural boundary on grounds of ethnic composition and community identity. Natural habitation and geography must be the only legitimate grounds for delimitation.
Manipur has waited more than fifty years for a delimitation which can actually reflect true demography and geography. The constitutional machinery is now in motion. Census 2027 is some months away. Just after the Census, the Delimi- tation Commission’s work may start in 2028 and conclude by 2029.
What is required now is clarity of purpose and honesty of process. The Census 2027 must be the valid demographic foundation. Na- tural geographical setting– and not community settlement patterns – should be the valid boundary methodology. The electoral chaos of the past fifty years, must be corrected by pure data and actual geography rather than by political calculation.
Manipur’s hills and valley deserve an electoral map drawn in the twenty-first century, not the one inherited from 1973. Every election held under the old map sounds unfair today. A genuine census followed by a fair delimitation will do justice to the next generation. It must be done right – on the land, not on the people.