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Advantage TRS
Encouragement of defections by TRS has forced the Centre to defer the process of delimitation of Assembly constituencies in Telangana as the BJP’s strategic team has advised its national leadership against any such move which could hamper BJP’s growth prospects as an alternative party to TRS in the state.
Hyderabad: Encouragement of defections by TRS has forced the Centre to defer the process of delimitation of Assembly constituencies in Telangana as the BJP’s strategic team has advised its national leadership against any such move which could hamper BJP’s growth prospects as an alternative party to TRS in the state.
The ruling TRS has been pitching hard for increasing the number of Assembly constituencies in Telangana. It has made several representations to the Centre in this regard urging the ministries to increase seats from existing 119 to 154.
The BJP senior leaders were averse to this idea as they alleged that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao was encouraging not only leaders but also elected representatives right from the level of sarpanch to Members of Parliament.
“KCR is luring leaders from other parties promising them to accommodate in Assembly and Council. Why should the Centre concede to his demand? What is the need to increase the seats and serve it on a platter to the ruling TRS?” asked a senior leader.
Sources said that the state BJP leaders have influenced their national leadership by claiming that TRS would be the single largest benefactor of the Centre’s move to increase Assembly seats at this juncture and not BJP.
Earlier, the Centre had proposed to increase the number of seats in Legislative Assemblies in Telangana and also in Andhra Pradesh. Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, during his visit to the state in March this year had in fact indicated that the Centre would amend the AP Reorganisation Act 2014. He had also met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and also sought the opinion of the Attorney General on the issue.
Party leaders said that after their caution, the Centre too decided to halt any activity on the delimitation of constituencies. “Who will benefit from the additional number of MLAs? It also means additional burden on the tax payer,” said the BJP leader.
The leaders claimed that there was nothing going on in New Delhi on the delimitation of constituencies. Earlier, TRS MP B Vinod Kumar moved a private bill seeking amendment to the AP Reorganisation Act and sought the support of all political parties. He had said that the seats can be increased by just amending the AP Reorganisation Act 2014.
The Section 26 (1) of the AP Reorganisation Act states ‘subject to the provisions of Article 170 of Constitution’, the number of seats in the legislative assembly of the successor states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana shall be increased.
BJLP leader G Kishan Reddy said, “There is an undemocratic rule going on in the state. The TRS leaders have succeeded in poaching MLAs and they are not leaving even sarpanches. They are forcing sarpanches to join TRS in order to get funds for development activities.
We will take up this issue with the Centre,” said Kishan Reddy. The present delimitation would continue up to 2026 and any increase in number of Assembly and Parliament seats would have to be taken on the basis of 2021 census.
By: K Chandrashekar
