Hyderabad: The Telangana Legislative Council has become unconstitutional and unless urgent steps are taken its continuation could be at stake, the BRS warned on Friday.
Senior BRS leader Boinapalli Vinod Kumar, a former MP, said at a press conference that the Constitution mandated a minimum of 40 members in a Legislative Council, but this number must be a minimum of one third of MLAs in a state.
“Telangana has 119 MLAs, and if the one third rule is applied then the number is less than 40 (MLCs). This makes the existence of the Council invalid as per Constitutional provisions,” he said.
The problem arose from the BJP government at the Centre doing away with nominated MLA and MP positions for the Anglo-Indian community. “Had this provision continued, Telangana would have 120 MLAs. With it no longer available, Telangana is stuck with 119 MLAs, and one third of this number will be less than 40.”
He added: "If someone goes to court, the Council can be declared unconstitutional."
Vinod Kumar said that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy should press for a simple Constitutional amendment to the wording in Section 26 of the AP Reorganisation Act dealing with provisions related to delimitation of Assembly constituencies in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
“The section says the increase of MLA seats will be subject to the provisions of Article 170 which states delimitation will be done after the first census conducted after 2026. All that needs to be added are two words ‘not withstanding’ to Section 26 of the Reorganisation Act which will allow the state to increase its MLA seats, and thus save the Council,” Vinod explained.
The senior BRS leader said the same process was applied when Article 370 was abrogated in Jammu and Kashmir and the BJP government included the very phrase of ‘not withstanding’ and increased the seats in the Union Territory.
“Tomorrow, Revanth Reddy and Chandrababu Naidu are meeting to discuss inter-state issues related to the Reorganisation Act. I urge Revanth Reddy to discuss pressing for a Constitutional amendment to allow the two states to increase their MLA seats,” Vinod said.
“Naidu is now believed to have a lot of pull at the Centre and Revanth must impress upon him to use that clout. If the amendment to Section 26 of the Reorganisation Act is made possible, then Telangana can increase its MLA seats from 119 to 153, while AP can increase its numbers from 175 to 225,” he said. If this happens, then more MLCs can be elected, saving the Council, Vinod added.
