K Chandrasekhar Rao, Chandrababu Naidu may shrug off delimitation delay

Hyderabad: With the Central government disinclined to bring about an amendment to increase the number of Assembly seats in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, sources close to both the Chief Ministers K. Chandrasekhar Rao and N. Chandrababu Naidu say they are unperturbed by this. It is also being said that if necessary they will adjust the aspirants with alternative posts like corporation chairmen and MLCs in the coming days.

Both the Chief Ministers have requested the Prime Minister more than once to bring about the amendment as per Section 26 of the AP Reorganisation Act to enhance the seats. For the record, the Central government has been saying this is not possible in view of the rider in Section 26 of the AP Bifurcation Act which says, ‘subject to Article 170 of the Constitution’.

Though alternative proposals like bringing an amendment to the AP Bifurcation Act Section 26 saying, ‘notwithstanding anything contained in Article 170 of the Constitution,’ the Centre has so far not been inclined to consider it. Even in the just-concluded Budget Session, the Centre has made its stand clear that as per Article 170 of the Constitution, fresh delimitation is not possible till 2026.

With the relations between Central BJP and TD strained recently on account of their not considering the requests of the Andhra Pradesh government in the fifth and last Union Budget in resolving pending assurances, it has increasingly become clearer now that the Centre is in no mood to consider the delimitation plea.

In fact Mr Rao had already told his confidants and even publicly said that the TRS on its own need not make any fresh requests to the Centre, in case delimitation is fructified, due to the efforts of Mr Naidu, Telangana also will automatically get it as it concerns both the states.

A source close to Mr Rao told Deccan Chronicle that the TRS chief has already started exploring alternative measures to adjust the Assembly ticket seekers. TRS had contested for all the 119 Assembly seats in the last elections and got 63 elected. Later, he admitted 25 MLAs elected from the Congress, TD, CPI, YSRC and BSP to take the number to 89. Since he admitted MLAs from the constituencies where the TRS candidates did not win, some of them have been made corporation chairmen already, some others will be adjusted with MLC posts the next year.

“If the delimitation is allowed there would be more flexibility in adju-sting both old and new. Without delimitation it is possible. As always our leader decides Assembly tickets, including sitting MLAs, based on their winnability,” a source close to the Chief Minister said. It’s the same in Andhra Pradesh too. 23 legislators from the YSRC have been admitted into the ruling party.

Recently, when Mr Naidu’s attention was drawn to the unnecessary delay in bringing the delimitation amendment, he said, “I am not worrying about that, I can make political adjustments, some of the TD aspirants in the constituencies won by YSRC will be adjusted in some other posts.”