Seat Distribution in India from 1st Lok Sabha Election to 18th Lok Sabha Election

The first parliament of independent India began with 489 seats, reflecting the population and administrative divisions of the newly independent nation. Over the next two decades, the total seat count gradually increased, reaching 520 by 1967, as constituencies were adjusted to accommodate population growth and territorial reorganizations. A significant structural change occurred in 1977, when the total number of Lok Sabha seats was standardized at 543, a figure that has remained constant for the past 47 years across 14 consecutive general elections. This stability in the total seat count, despite India’s population more than doubling during this period, is a result of the 42nd Constitutional Amendment of 1976, which froze constituency boundaries until after the 2001 Census, later extended to 2026 and recently to 2031. This freeze was implemented to encourage population control efforts by ensuring states with better family planning wouldn’t lose political representation due to slower population growth. The seats reserved for marginalized communities show a gradual evolution. The initial parliament had 72 seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and 26 for Scheduled Tribes. These numbers increased gradually, with SC seats reaching 79 by 1977 and ST seats growing to 41 in the same year. This configuration remained unchanged until 2009, when the reserved seats were adjusted to 84 for SCs and 47 for STs, reflecting updated demographic assessments from the 2001 Census and the implementation of the Delimitation Act of 2002. The proportion of reserved seats relative to the total has remained fairly consistent, hovering around 14-15% for SC seats and 5-8.7% for ST seats. This stability reflects India’s constitutional commitment to ensuring minimum guaranteed representation for these communities, though debates continue about whether the proportion of reserved seats adequately reflects these groups’ share in the total population. This long-term stability in seat distribution, while providing structural continuity to India’s parliamentary system, has also created growing population disparities across constituencies. Since boundaries have remained frozen despite uneven population growth across regions, some constituencies now represent significantly more citizens than others, raising questions about equal representation that will likely need to be addressed when the delimitation freeze eventually expires.