ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846 How Does the Delimitation of Constituencies Influence Elections in Manipur? THANGKHANLAL NGAIHTE Thangkhanlal Ngaihte (
[email protected]) teaches political science at Churachandpur College, Lamka, Manipur. Vol. 54, Issue No. 44, 09 Nov, 2019 The author would like to acknowledge Joy Tonsing’s help in collecting materials used in this article. Manipur has two parliamentary seats in the Lok Sabha, out of which the Outer Manipur constituency is reserved for a tribal candidate. However, in 1954, the Delimitation Commission of India clubbed the electorates of the erstwhile Thoubal subdivision (excluding Bishenpur tehsil) with the Outer Manipur constituency to "balance" the number of voters in the two constituencies, thereby increasing the number of non-tribal voters in Outer Manipur. This arrangement denies non-tribal people the right to contest elections and makes ST candidates dependent on non-tribal votes for electoral success. Issues related to the delimitation of territorial constituencies are fraught and complex. Most recently, this was exemplified in Jammu and Kashmir, where rumours of a fresh delimitation exercise created a political storm (Sandhu 2019). In Manipur too, there is one peculiar issue related to delimitation that surfaces during every parliamentary election, and the 2019 parliamentary election was no exception (Imphal Free Press 2019). In Manipur, the concern is not only about the need to balance the relationship between the sizes of population and territorial constituencies. It is also about the violation of the right to contest in parliamentary elections for a large group of people. ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846 Manipur has two parliamentary seats in the Lok Sabha.