Telugu States wait for increase in Assembly seats as talk of delimitation gains momentum  

Telangana and Andhra Pradesh await Centre's action on increasing Assembly constituencies as per APRA 2014.

As the Central government gears up for delimitation of the constituencies next year, the two Telugu States Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are waiting for the Centre to increase the number of Assembly constituencies in the respective States as assured in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2014 (APRA).

Section 26 (1) of the Reorganisation Act says that “subject to the provisions contained in Article 170 of the Constitution and without prejudice to Section 15 of this Act (APRA), the number of seats in the legislative assemblies of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana shall be increased from 175 and 119 to 225 and 153 respectively”.

The Act specifically states that all the constituencies should be single-member constituencies and they should as far as practicable be geographically compact areas. Regard should be given to physical features existing boundaries of administrative units, facilities of communication and convenience to the public in delimiting them.

Almost 11 years after the bifurcation of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, the Centre is yet to take any concrete steps towards delimitation for creating new Assembly constituencies in the two States.

The Telangana government had submitted several representations to the Union government and raised the issue in different forums, including the Southern Zonal Council headed by the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, but in vain. The issue came to the fore ahead of the 2018 Assembly elections when the Election Commission sought information about the exact extent of the affected constituencies when seven mandals of Telangana were transferred to the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.

In the same communication, the ECI sought information relating to increase in number of Assembly seats in Telangana. But no step has been initiated in this direction as yet. Senior officials claim that the Centre is citing excuses like requirement of constitutional amendment and pending census operations for taking up delimitation as these have not been mentioned in the Act.

The Centre should not insist on Article 170 and instead take the spirit of explanation of Article 170 which says population means the population as ascertained at the last preceding census of which relevant figures have been published. “When the APRA based its apportionment of assets and liabilities and all other aspects on 2011 census, why should the Centre insist on the fresh census for enhancing the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly?” a senior official associated with State Reorganisation affairs questioned.