Can’t hike assembly seats in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh: Election Commission

Hyderabad: The increase of Assembly seats in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh by 2019, as indicated in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, has hit a roadblock with the Election Commission conveying its inability to address the issue citing legal defects in the Act.

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao was informed about this on Friday when he met Chief Election Commissioner H.S. Brahma in New Delhi. Mr Rao submitted a representation to the CEC, seeking delimitation of Assembly seats to 153 from 119.

Election Commission awaits MHA’s nod

During discussions with the Chief Election Commissioner H.S. Brahma in New Delhi, it was pointed out that unless the Union home ministry rectified relevant sections in the Act and brought an amendment, it was not possible for the EC to take follow up action. AP government officials had also been informed about it when they had met EC officials recently. It is now up to the President, who is empowered to remove difficulties for implementing various provisions of the Bifurcation Act, or the Union home ministry, which is the nodal agency to affect changes, to nullify the defects in order to implement the provision to increase Assembly seats in both the states.

According to Karimnagar MP B. Vinod Kumar, Mr Rao will meet Union home minister Mr Rajnath Singh on Saturday for this specific purpose. “We met the CEC today and represented the matter, however there are genuine defects in the Bifurcation Act itself; unless they are removed, it is difficult to increase the Assembly seats by 2019. We will bring the matter to Rajnath Singh tomorrow to press for an amendment,” said Mr Kumar.

Chief Ministers Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu have been promising their respective party leaders the increase of Assembly seats by next elections so that they could accommodate more leaders into the Legislature. However this will not be possible unless the defects in the Act are amended.

Parliament had brought an amendment to Art 170 (delimitation of Assembly and Parliament constituencies) in 2008 stating that there would be no alterations in the existing constituencies till 2026 in the entire country. The AP Reorganisation Act, however, provides for increase of Assembly seats in both the states, authorizing the EC to take up fresh delimitation. Now it is for the Union home ministry to bring an amendment to the AP Reorganisation Act by adding a few sentences to make fresh delimitation for increase of seats overriding the provisions in Article 170.