VII. Delimitation of Constituencies

The size and shape of the Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies are determined, according to section 4 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, by an independent Delimitation Commission. Under a constitutional amendment of 1976, delimitation was suspended until after the census of 2001. However, certain amendments to the Constitution made in 2001 and 2003 have, while putting a freeze on the total number of existing seats as allocated to various States in the House of People and the State Legislative Assemblies on the basis of 1971 census till the first census to be taken after the year 2026, provided that each State shall be delimited into territorial Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies on the basis of 2001 census and the extent of such constituencies as delimited shall remain frozen till the first census to be taken after the year 2026. The number of seats to be reserved for SC/ ST shall be re-worked out on the basis of 2001 census. The constituency shall be delimited in a manner that the population of each Parliamentary and Assembly Constituency in a State so far as practicable be the same throughout the State.

Delimitation of Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies in Tamil Nadu

The Delimitation exercise for the delimitation of Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies in Tamil Nadu commenced in the year 2002 following the enactment of the Delimitation Act, 2002 by the Parliament in pursuance to the amendment made to the Constitution by the 84^th Amendment Act, 2001.

The last delimitation exercise was carried out based on the Census of 1971 and the Constituencies notified in 1976.

The Delimitation Commission constituted in 2002 started its exercise on the basis of 1991 Census figures. Subsequently, the Delimitation Commission took up the exercise based on the 2001 census figures.

The Delimitation Commission associated in its work 5 Members of the Parliament and 5 Members of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly duly nominated by the Speaker of Lok Sabha and the Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly respectively. The Associate Members nominated from Tamil Nadu in the year 2002 are set out below :

In the year 2004, General Elections to Lok Sabha was held. Consequently, the Delimitation Commission in consultation with the Speaker of Lok Sabha nominated the following members elected from Tamil Nadu in lieu of the Members of Parliament nominated earlier:

The Members nominated from the Tamil Nadu State Legislative Assembly continued till May 2006.

After the General Elections to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly in May 2006, the Commission nominated the following members who were elected to Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly in 2006:

The Members of Parliament nominated earlier and the above Members of 13^th Legislative Assembly continued and assisted the Delimitation Commission till the completion of its task in August 2007.

Basic administrative unit for Delimitation exercise

Based on the Census figures published by the Registrar General of India, the Delimitation Commission prepared Paper I containing district-wise 2001 population data and the entitlement of seats for each district. The Commission also prepared Paper II indicating entitlement of seats for SC and ST in the Assembly/ Parliament and distribution of ST/SC seats in the districts. The total number of SC seats increased from 42 to 44, while the total number seats reserved for ST which was 3 as per 1976 delimitation got reduced to 2. With reference to population changes, some districts gained in number of Assembly Constituencies while some others suffered a reduction in number of Assembly Constituencies.

The Census 2001 was conducted based on revenue villages as the administrative unit in each district and the Registrar General of India published the figures accordingly. The Commission held a number of meetings with Associate Members to discuss in detail the draft proposals formulated by the Commission. The Associate Members represented that the delimitation exercise should be done based on Panchayats and Panchayat Unions as the units. As the population data for the Panchayats/Panchayat Unions was not readily available and the Panchayat and Revenue village areas are not co-terminus in Tamil Nadu, it was decided by the Commission to continue the exercise based on revenue units.

When the last delimitation exercise was undertaken in 1971-1976, the total number of districts was then only 15. Subsequently, in view of formation of new districts, the total number of districts when the delimitation exercise was taken up in 2001 increased to 30. There were, therefore, large scale changes in the population as well as in the administrative structure. The Delimitation Commission after conducting a series of meetings with the Associate Members and after examining the proposals/ suggestions submitted by them, published its draft proposals for Tamil Nadu on 5.4.2007. The exercise which was started in 2002 had to be stopped temporarily in between due to intervention of General Elections to Lok Sabha held in 2004 and again due to the elections to Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly in 2006. After publishing the draft proposals on 5.4.2007, the Delimitation Commission invited objections or suggestions from the general public.

Public sittings were held at the places and dates indicated below.

The representations, both oral and written submissions made by the general public, political parties and Associate Members were examined in depth AC wise by the Delimitation Commission which drew up the final list of Parliamentary Constituencies and ACs in Tamil Nadu. This was published in the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette on 13.08.2007.

Reservation of Constituencies for SCs and STs- As per the provisions in the Delimitation Act, the Constituencies in which the seats are to be reserved for SC and ST should, as far as practicable, be located in areas where the proportion of their population to total population is comparatively large. According to the population figures of SCs and STs, the entitlement of reserved Constituencies for SCs is 44 ACs and 7 PCs, while for STs, Tamil Nadu is entitled for 2 ACs and no Parliamentary Constituency. During the public sittings, political parties and general public requested that the 7 PCs reserved for SC should be spread across the State dividing the State into zones instead of concentrating all the PCs in the northern belt of Tamil Nadu. The Delimitation Commission re-organised the 39 PCs as well as the 234 ACs and reserved Nilgiris Parliamentary Constituency in the Western Region, Tenkasi Parliamentary Constituency in the Southern Region, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram in the Northern Region and Chidambaram and Nagapattinam in the Central/ Eastern Region.