Data

Indian Assembly Constituency Maps:


If you have tried mapping the Assembly Constituency map files provided by the Election Commission of India, you will notice that somehow the constituencies appear to be in the middle of the Mediterranean, and hence do not overlap with any other Indian maps you might use like those of districts or parliamentary constituencies. Outraged that the ECI will not provide the correct GIS files and that private companies have been charging $2000 for the correctly mapped files, I went ahead and did some of my own corrections, and am providing the corrected shapefile for free to anyone who wishes to use it for research purposes. All I ask in return is that you give me credit, and to please share if you make any improvements.
Update June 2011: Note that these are constituency maps before delimitation (i.e. before 2009 elections). More recent maps may be available from the ECI.

Disclaimers
I make no claims whatsoever about the accuracy of these corrections. They have been created in ArcMap using linking and rubbersheeting with noticeable physical features. Use at your own risk, and definitely do not expect the map to be anywhere close to accurate at the village level.

The state of Uttaranchal, rather than being joined to its neighbors in the middle of the Mediterranean, actually finds itself in the Arctic. I only noticed this after working on the maps for a while, and have not yet managed to join it to the rest of the states. UPDATE 2012: The Uttaranchal data was very helpfully added to the dataset by Manasa Patnam. The link below now has the full data, and you should acknowledge Manasa too if you use the data.

Again, use at your own risk, and do not hold me liable for any mistakes!

The Zipped Files