If GOI’s idea is that every state will have its LS representation go up by 50%, that should be part of the bills

GOI, reportedly, will circulate a formula for ensuring 33% women’s representation in a bigger Lok Sabha that, on the face of it, renders some of the earlier criticisms moot.

Every state will see its number of LS MPs increase by 50%, and one-third of this bigger number will be reserved for women. Half of any number will always be equal to one-third of the number obtained by adding 50% to the original number.

This is a mathematical truism. It also seems to address one major concern of critics and opposition parties – that proposals placed before Parliament’s special session will end up ‘under-representing’ certain states, especially those in the South, in the name of bringing in women’s reservation.

In the reported formula, the proportion of states’ representation in LS remains the same, because every state will have the same proportionate increase. Neither will it be the case that any party will be handed an automatic advantage when it comes to securing a parliamentary majority.

For example, assume BJP does well in UP under the new formula, where UP has 120 LS seats (80+50% of 80, which is 40).

But BJP’s job of securing a parliamentary majority will be just as challenging as it is in the current LS, because every state’s seats have gone up by the same proportion.

Questions still remain, though.

First, will this be a part of the bills that will be tabled. It should be, because MPs need to debate this as part of a proposed new law, not as an idea floated by GOI.

Second, and assuming this is part of the bill, the implication is clearly that the whole exercise is delinked, at the macro level, from population base – since every state’s LS representation proportion remains the same as now.

So, and again assuming this is the case, a future delimitation commission will not be deciding on the overall number of seats or state-wise seat numbers.

Its job will be redrawing constituencies to accommodate a higher number of seats in every state. For this, of course, population figures will be needed.

These can, presumably, be 2011 Census figures. But then, what happens to the constitutional requirement that a delimitation commission work on population figures to rework LS seat numbers?

Will that be addressed in these bills or will that require another bill?

But, most important is that if GOI has a formula in mind, it should be part of a bill – not a promise that this will be followed at a future date.

END OF ARTICLE