Union Home Minister Amit Shah has pushed for rationalisation of the number of voters in every constituency, saying MPs from seats with a large electorate cannot fulfil their aspirations.
Urging the opposition to support the passage of a bill to implement a 33 per cent quota for women in legislatures in 2029, Shah had said in the Lok Sabha on Friday that the delimitation exercise was essential to rationalise the number of voters in every constituency as it was essential to implement in its true spirit the idea of “one person, one vote”.
Citing the example of Malkajgiri in Telangana, he had said that this Lok Sabha seat had more than 20 lakh voters and the MPs from such constituencies could not cater to the aspirations of such a large voter base.
Here is a look at the Lok Sabha seats with the highest and the lowest number of voters during the 2024 parliamentary polls.
According to the Election Commission’s data of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, there are five constituencies, including West Delhi, spread across four states with over 20 lakh voters each. In fact, two seats have more than 30 lakh voters.
After the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters’ list, the figure may have changed, an official pointed out.
There are five Lok Sabha seats where the number of voters varies from 58,000 and 5.98 lakh.
The Malkajgiri seat in Telangana has over 37.80 lakh voters and Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh has nearly 29.48 lakh electors.
Gautam Buddha Nagar, also in Uttar Pradesh, has 26.81 lakh voters.
Karnataka’s Bangalore North has 32.15 lakh voters and the West Delhi seat has 25.92 lakh.
On the contrary, Lakshadweep has nearly 58,000 electors. The voter strength of Daman and Diu stands at 1.34 lakh, while that of Ladakh is nearly 1.90 lakh.
Dadra and Nagar Haveli has nearly 2.83 lakh voters and Andaman and Nicobar 3.15 lakh.
Delimitation means redrawing the boundary of a Lok Sabha constituency. Once a Lok Sabha seat is redrawn, the shape and size of the assembly constituencies also change.
A minimum of five assembly constituencies or segments come under one Lok Sabha seat.
According to a set of frequently asked questions (FAQs) issued by the government on the proposed changes to the women’s quota law, which was defeated in the Lok Sabha on Friday, delimitation is essential for implementing women’s reservation.
The limit on Lok Sabha seats was set at 550 in 1976. In 1971, the population of India was 54 crore. Today it is 140 crore.
“Therefore, it is important to increase seats to 850 in Lok Sabha. This would enable fair representation of people in Parliament,” it read.
