PANAJI
With the Census Commission of India announcing a pause in the process of redrawing electoral boundaries until March 2027, the much anticipated move to grant political reservation to Scheduled Tribe (ST) community for the 2027 assembly elections seems to have fizzled out.
The BJP-led government was eyeing for 2027 polls to have four seats reserved for STs, who currently have got no seat reserved in the 40-member State Assembly, despite having a population of close to 1.50 lakh.
However, the Registrar general and census commissioner of India, Mritunjay Kumar Narayan in a communication to Goa government has asked to ensure that no changes are made in the boundaries of administrative units between January 1, 2026, and March 31, 2027, during which Census exercise will take place. “For Census 2027, boundaries of administrative units will be frozen on December 31, 2025,” he said.
Despite repeated attempts Chief Electoral Officer Sanjay Goel and Additional Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Masurkar remained unavailable for the comments.
But sources confirmed that the Election Commission of India will not conduct any delimitation exercise after December 31 and till the census process is complete. Also, the delimitation commission will have to be set up, which is possible only once population data is out.
“Through constitutional amendments, the Union government had frozen the delimitation of constituencies until 2026. Therefore, a new delimitation exercise, which readjusts constituency boundaries and seat allocations, will only happen after the first census, which is been held in two phases. The second phase is due in February- March 2027,” sources said.
The first phase will be house-listing operations, which involve creating a comprehensive list of all buildings, structures, and housing units across the State, scheduled for April to September 2026. The second phase will be the population enumeration -- the headcount of the population -- which will take place from February 2027 onwards.
The Centre, last month, notified the Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Tribes in Assembly Constituencies of Goa Act, 2025 that paves way for political reservation to STs in Goa Assembly.
As per the Act, the Census Commissioner has to ascertain/ estimate the population as at the last census of the STs in Goa. The population figures ascertained by the Census Commissioner will be notified in the Gazette of India. This population figures will replace any figures previously published.
On publication of new figures in the official gazette, the Election Commission will make necessary amendments in the Delimitation Order for the purpose of giving proper representation to the Scheduled Tribes of Goa. The Representation of the People Act, 1950 will be deemed to have been amended accordingly.
