Hyderabad: The Congress’ opposition to the proposal of fresh delimitation of Assembly segments in both Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh is said to be one of the reasons for deferring the decision.
According to sources, when TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao met Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently and sought an early decision on introducing the delimitation Bill, the latter reportedly told him that senior Congress leaders Digvijay Singh and Jairam Ramesh had stated their opposition to it.
Though fresh delimitation is part of the AP Reorganisation Act, and the Act was prepared by the then Congress-led UPA government, Congress leaders of late have been airing their objections to the Bill and said they will not support it if the NDA government does not address the other financial and economic matters in the Reorganisation Act.
Whether the proposed Bill is taken up as an ordinary Bill that needs to be passed by a simple majority, or as a constitutional amendment Bill, whi-ch needs the approval of 50 per cent of the legislatures in the country, it needs Cong-ress support for passage in the Rajya Sabha. If the Congress party opposes it, it will be difficult for the ruling NDA to get it passed as it does not have the numbers.
Delimitation is intended to increase the Assembly seats in both the states and it is the only provision in the entire Reorganisation Act directly linked to politics. One section of TS BJP leaders has told party president Amit Shah that the moment the Centre agrees to introduce the bill, more and more leaders from the Telugu Desam and Congress parties will join the TRS, hoping to be fielded as candidates in the expanded Assembly.
This will leave little space for the BJP, which is trying hard to be the main alternative to the TRS, to attract more defections from other parties.
As far as AP BJP leaders are concerned, they have no definite opinion on the issue. The YSRC, which is the main Opposition in AP, has been opposing the bill tooth and nail, fearing that more of its MLAs will defect to the TD on account of the increased Assem-bly seats.
A source in the BJP said that “delimitation of Assembly seats is not a closed chapter, but it's not sure when it will be done, and much depends on AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in convincing Mr Shah.”
