AP, TS leaders seek rise in Assembly seats

HYDERABAD: Leaders of major political parties in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have unanimously decided to aggressively pursue the demand for an increase in the number of seats in the legislative Assemblies of both the states as promised by the Centre in the AP Reorganisation Act.

'An all-party committee will be formed soon and a representation will be made to the Union government for an increase in the number of seats from 119 to 153 in the Telangana Assembly and from 175 to 225 in the AP Assembly.

We are evolving a strategy to ensure that the Centre could be persuaded to ensure that delimitation process is taken up without delay,' said Marri Sashidhar Reddy, speaking at a round table conference held on the issue in Hyderabad.

Leaders from all political parties of AP and Telangana like CLP leader K Jana Reddy, leader of opposition in AP Legislative Council C Ramchandraiah, MPs M Rajamohan Reddy, B Vinod Kumar, V Hanumantha Rao, MLAs DK Aruna, A Revanth Reddy, C Ramachandra Reddy among others took part in the conference conducted by M Channa Reddy Memorial Trust to chalk out future course of action on increasing the number of Assembly seats in both states.

Besides pursuing the demand with the Centre, participants also urged AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to take steps to pass resolutions in the state Assemblies to expedite the process as per Section 26 of AP Reorganisation Act.

Talks of increase in seats in both Assemblies has been abuzz since bifurcation of AP. With both CMs assuring their followers on many occasions of increasing Assembly seats many believe that process is natural progression of bifurcation. But Sashidhar Reddy busted many myths regarding delimitation of constituencies.

'The AP Reorganisation Act has entrusted Election Commission to take up the delimitation process. But unless state Assemblies pass resolutions and persuade the Centre to notify, the delimitation process will not be taken up by the Election Commission. This process will take a long time and unless both states take up the issue now, seats may not be increased by the next election time, ie 2019,' said Sashidhar Reddy.

There are wide variations regarding the number of Assembly constituencies (AC) for each parliamentary constituency (PC) or the size of population in each constituency in states. For instance, in Uttar Pradesh there are five ACs for one PC whereas there are eight and nine ACs for each PC in Rajasthan and Haryana respectively.

While there are 10 ACs for one PC in Delhi, in north-eastern states the number goes up to even 30. 'There are seven ACs for one PC in AP and Telangana. It can be increased to nine if delimitation is taken up. If states similar to us like Rajasthan and Haryana have eight and nine ACs for one PC why cannot we have nine ACs for one PC?

Also, if Kerala with a population of 3.30 crore has 140 Assembly seats, how come Telangana with a population of 3.52 crore has just 119 Assembly seats?' Sashidhar Reddy wondered.

As small Assemblies may breed instability, the clause to increase the number of Assembly seats in both states was included in the AP Reorganisation Act.

Political instability experiences in small states like Goa and Jharkhand in past prompted the Centre to come up with this proposition during bifurcation. Besides ensuring stability, even from governance and administration point of view it will benefit people.

Bifurcation of AP has brought a strange fate for the seven mandals which were merged from Telangana to AP. After the transfer of seven mandals, which were earlier part of Khammam district in AP, villages falling under the purview of two parliamentary constituencies and three Assembly constituencies of Telangana became part of AP. If this anomaly has to be corrected, delimitation has to be taken up.

But if the delimitation is limited to just these seven mandals then it will be a simple exercise which can be done in a few months. But if delimitation has to be taken up all over the two states it will be a major task which will take years.