LOK SABHA STRENGTH

Dec. 18, 2019

Former President Pranab Mukherjee said that the number of seats in Lok Sabha should be increased to 1,000 from the present 543, and advocated a corresponding increase in the number of MPs in Rajya Sabha and state legislatures.

About:

Article 81 of the Constitution defines the composition of the House of the People or Lok Sabha. It states that the House shall not consist of more than 550 elected members of whom not more than 20 will represent Union Territories.
At present, the strength of the Lok Sabha is 543, of which 530 have been allocated to the states, and the rest to the Union Territories.
The strength of Lok Sabha hasn’t always been 543 seats. Originally, Article 81 provided that the Lok Sabha shall not have more than 500 members. The first House constituted in 1952 had 497 members.
The last time the strength of the Lok Sabha was revised was in 1977, which was based on the 1971 census that put the population at 55 crore.
Arguments for change: Every MP currently represents an average 16-18 lakh Indians — too large a number to be kept in touch with in a meaningful way. Thus number of Lok Sabha seats should be rationalised on the basis of population. The population since then has more than doubled.