Hyderabad: Yet another lapse by the previous UPA government while bringing out the AP Reorganisation Act has come to fore.
The Act states that the Assembly constituencies in Telangana and AP would be enhanced from 119 and 175 to 153 and 225 respectively and delimitation of constituencies would come into effect from the 2019 elections. However, the Act failed to bring about a Constitutional Amendment to this simultaneously and there is now uncertainty on the implementation of the said provision.
Recently, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had tried to convince TRS leaders that they need not be worried with leaders from other parties joining the TRS as there would be 34 more Assembly seats in 2019 and everyone would be accommodated.
A similar assurance was given by AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to the TD in Vijayawada recently.
Mr Rao, in fact, had also said that the proposal of increasing the number of districts in Telangana from the existing 10 to 24 would be taken up once the delimitation of the Assembly segments was completed.
But, the fact is that delimitation of Assembly and Lok Sabha segments was already done in 2008 and Article 170 of the Constitution had been amended accordingly. The next delimitation is scheduled for 2026.
Despite this being the case, the AP Reorganisation Act states that in order to increase the number of Assembly seats in both Telangana and AP by 2019, a fresh delimitation would be taken up exclusively for these states. But the then UPA government had ignored bringing a Constitutional Amendment to this effect to enable fresh delimitation of Assembly segments.
When few leaders had approached the Union Law and Home ministries to remind them about setting up of a delimitation commission for the two states, the ministries apparently suggested that unless there was an amendment, it can not be done.
The important aspect of this special amendment is that the intended Bill needs to get approval from at least 50 per cent of legislatures from across the country.
On Sunday, at a round table conference organised by former MLA M. Sasidhar Reddy, attended by leaders of all political parties from both Telangana and AP states, unanimously resolved to urge the Centre to resolve the issue.
It was decided to urge the CMs to send all-party delegations to the Centre to exert pressure in this regard.
