On February 28, 2020, the President of India rescinded its 2008 order which suspended the delimitation process in four North Eastern States. Accordingly, a Delimitation Commission was set up on March 6, 2020 to conduct the delimitation exercise in the four North Eastern States and Jammu & Kashmir. The Election Commission of India, urged by the Supreme Court, has completed the delimitation process in Assam based on the 2001 Census and has initiated for Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, but remains uncertain for Manipur.

The delimitation ordered by the Supreme Court is constitutionally provided and is to be implemented within three months in 4 NE states, including Manipur. The belated process of 2002 only entails alteration of the boundaries of constituencies to equally distribute population among the parliamentary and assembly seats. There will be no decrease or increase in the total number of MP or MLA seats for the state but the area of constituencies within the state may change.

The number of Lok Sabha seats and assembly seats for Manipur has remained unaltered since 1971 census and may only be changed after 2026 as the 84th amendment to Constitution has continued the freeze on the total number of seats in each state till 2026. This means that the belated delimitation exercise of 2002 ordered by the SC will only affect the boundaries of constituencies and not have any effect of increase or decrease in the seats of the state as seats have been frozen till 2026.

A set of guidelines and methodology of 2004 guides the Delimitation Commission of India prescribing that all parliamentary and assembly constituencies throughout the State should have similar size population as far as practicable allowing a deviation to the extent of plus or minus 10 percent from the State average population. Further, all assembly constituencies in a district should be confined within the territorial limits of that district, whenever possible i.e. an assembly constituency should not ordinarily extend to more than one district. Furthermore, as far as practicable, sub-divisions are to be kept intact as one administrative unit and not unnecessarily broken. In addition, they should be contiguous, and communication and convenience should be taken into consideration. It is also important to avoid putting areas that are separated by natural barriers, such as rivers, hilly ranges, or forests, in the same constituency. The delimitation process should start from the North and move towards the North-West and then proceed in a zigzag manner to end at the Southern side.

The problem of delimitation in Manipur is that the State literally functions like two separate geographical entities. The “hill areas” has been defined under Article 371-C of the Constitution and its geographical sanctity of a land mass separate from other parts of the State i.e. valley is to be maintained. Hence, the “hill areas” have 20 MLA seats of which 19 are reserved for ST. Given the clear geographical definition of “hill areas” under Article 371-C of the Constitution any area of hill districts cannot be clubbed for inclusion in assembly constituencies of the valley districts and vice versa, areas of valley districts cannot be clubbed with “hill areas” constituencies. This position of maintaining the integrity of the “hill areas” for delimitation only supplements the delimitation guidelines that all assembly constituencies in a district should be confined within the territorial limits of that district, whenever possible i.e. an assembly constituency should not ordinarily extend to more than one district. On account of the guidelines and the constitutional position of the “hill areas”, delimitation exercise for Manipur, apart from confining assembly constituencies as far as possible within the geographical area of a district, will also have to keep in mind the constitutional requirement of maintaining the sanctity and integrity of “hill areas” districts.

The UNC and CSOs of hill areas have been agitating for roll back of the district in hill areas to post December 2016 status. Talks have taken place recently with officials of MHA and the matter is still at consultation stage awaiting decision. Now that the belated delimitation exercise of 2002 has been directed by SC to be completed within 3 months and the schedule for the next delimitation under the first Census after 2026 will be taking place thereafter, it is crucial that decision on roll back of new districts to post December 2016 position is taken without delay. Given the guidelines of delimitation of confining assembly constituencies as far as possible within the geographical area of a district, it could be more expedient and beneficial for delimiting additional assembly constituencies to be carved out of the original districts i.e. Ukhrul, Tamenglong, Chandel and Kangpokpi districts.

In other words, if erstwhile Ukhrul district is kept undivided the adjustments of population for carving out additional assembly constituencies within a single district would be easier and smoother without loosing out fractions of population it does not add up to the average size of having an additional seat. This logic of such advantageous position of a single district in place of two will be similarly applicable to Tamenglong and Noney districts, Chandel and Tengnoupal districts and Senapati and Kangpokpi. As the average size of a constituency will be established for Manipur assembly constituencies based on 2001 Census population figures, there will be some loss of seats in the valley districts which could get added to the assembly constituencies in the districts falling under “hill areas”.

Some political parties in Manipur have started opposing the order of the SC to implement the belated delimitation exercise as per provisions of the Constitution, and their campaign should be countered by the CSOs from the hill areas. UNC and CSOs of hill areas should pressurise the MHA to demand roll back of new districts created in December 2016 to post December 2016 position without delay if the advantageous position of having a single district (instead of two) as it existed prior to December 2016 is to be capitalised during the delimitation exercise.

Ngaranmi Shimray
New Delhi
27th March 2025