AP Act may be amended to facilitate hike in Assembly seats in 2 states

Hyderabad: The Union home ministry is learnt to have started fresh moves to bring in a legislation to amend the AP Reorganisation Act to facilitate increase of Assembly seats in both TS and AP by the 2019 elections.

With Chief Ministers K. Chandrasekhar Rao and N. Chandrababu Naidu separately meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Rajnath Singh and requesting increase in the number of Assembly seats in their respective states, the home ministry has started an exercise to prepare a note.

Sources said before preparing a draft amendment Bill, Mr Singh will obtain clearance from the PM. Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu has been working towards getting the legislation through, and persuaded Mr Singh who ordered his department to prepare the note.

“Once we get a nod from the Prime Minister, we will prepare a draft amendment Bill to the AP Reorganisation Act and it will likely get Parliament’s approval in the next session,” said a source.

Section 26 of the AP Reorganisation Act provides for increasing the number of Assembly seats in TS from the existing 119 to 153 and in AP from 175 to 225. There is however, a rider stating that it should be “in accordance with Article 170 of the Constitution”.

Article 170 (C) states there shall be no delimitation of Assembly and Lok Sabha seats till 2026. To overcome this obstacle, a few months ago the Union home ministry had written to the Attorney-General seeking his opinion on how to proceed with increasing Assembly seats in both states without triggering Article 170.

The A-G had advised against the move, stating that similar demands might crop up from other states too. After this, there was no activity on that front. Recently, after the two Chief Ministers met PM Modi and Mr Singh and due to the lobbying by Mr Venkaiah Naidu, the home ministry has once again started moving on the proposal.

Unconfirmed reports say that Mr Rao told the PM that the TRS would extend support to the NDA if needed after the 2019 election and requested him to consider the amendment for hiking Assembly seats as it was a political necessity for him.

More than 25 legislators from Opposition parties have switched over to the TRS in the last few months and the Chief Minister was confident of accommodating them by promising an increase in Assembly seats.

It is also being rumoured that during recent consultations with Union ministers, Mr Chandrababu Naidu was given an assurance about the fresh amendment to the Act to increase Assembly seats. Even on Monday, Mr Chandrababu Naidu had told TS TD leaders that an increase in Assembly seats in both states would happen soon.

Mr Venkaiah Naidu, in his meetings with the PM and Mr Singh on the issue, reportedly told them that in order to contain the YSRC and to strengthen the TD-BJP alliance in AP, such an amendment was necessary. The YSRC had openly alleged that the increase of Assembly seats was meant to accommodate political turn-coats.

The T-BJP leadership is against an increase in the number of Assembly seats and it has represented the matter to Mr Singh. “We have been opposing the move as it will only help the TRS to further encourage defections, it doesn’t serve the people’s purpose,” said BJP official spokesperson M. Sridhar Reddy.

BJP insiders say any increase of Assembly seats will result in their political rival MIM increasing its tally due to shrinking of existing constituencies, and the chances of the BJP simultaneously increasing its tally will be doubtful.