Top

Presidential poll: Telangana MLAs' vote value lowered

AP MLAs get more weightage in Presidential poll.

Hyderabad: The Presidential election, to be held for the first time after bifurcation, will bring a change in the value of the votes of each MLA in the two Telugu-speaking states.

In undivided AP, the value of each MLA’s vote in the House of 294 was 148. Now, the Election Commission has notified the vote value in TS as 132, while for AP, it has been increased to 159. Elected MLAs of both the States are eligible to vote in the Presidential election.

It’s not yet clear whether consensus will be reached or a contest will take place, based on which the strength of respective candidates in each of the Telugu state would be ascertained.

For the last few decades, the 1971 Census is being taken as the base census by the EC to fix the vote value. Accordingly, the vote value had remained almost constant up till 2000, after which three new states were carved out. The EC was obliged to fix the value of the MLAs’ vote accordingly.

Since TS and residuary AP were formed in 2014, the need to fix separate vote values for the both the states for the Presidential election arose.

The population of the districts as per the 1971 Census is considered for fixing the vote value, regardless of new districts formed either in undivided AP or in Telangana state.

At present, the population of AP is taken as 2,78,99,586 and of TS as 1,57,02,122 as per the 1971 Census.

Accordingly, the total value of 119 elected MLAs of Telangana state is estimated as 15,708, and for the 175 elected MLAs of AP (one seat is vacant) is 27,825.

Since there is no change in the value of elected Members of Parliament which is 708, accordingly, the total value for Telangana state , which has 17 Lok Sabha and 7 Rajya Sabha Members, would be 16,992 and for the 25 Lok Sabha and 11 Rajya Sabha Members of AP, it would be 25,488.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
Next Story