EC To Form Delimitation Committee For Telangana Assembly Segments Within A Month

August 8, 2014 11:17 am

The Election Commission has started the process of delimitation of constituencies in Telagnana and AP. As per the Andhra Pradesh state Bifurcation Act, the Central Election Commission (CEC) has taken up the delimitation process in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

The CEC has asked the states for their population details for each constituency – like total population, SC and ST population and average population. State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Bhanwarlal said the Election Commission would constitute delimitation commissions for both the states, within a month after getting this information. The Delimitation committees would be headed by a retired Supreme Court judge. Five MLAs and five MPs from respective states would be nominated to the committees.

In the State Bifurcation Act, 119 Assembly constituencies were allotted to Telangana and 175 constituencies were allotted to Andhra Pradesh state. After bifurcation, Andhra Pradesh has 29 SC reserved constituencies and seven ST reserved constituencies out of 175 Assembly constituencies. In Telangana, out of 119 segments, there are 17 SC reserved seats and 12 ST reserved seats. According to the State Bifurcation Act, in Telangana, the Assembly constituencies will be increased from 119 to 153 and in AP they will be increased from 175 to 225. The 2019 general elections will be held with the new constituencies. According to their SC and ST population, Telangana should have 18 SC and 10 ST and Andhra Pradesh should have 30 SC and 9 ST segments. The last delimitation was done on the basis of the 2001 census and the current one will be done on the basis of the 2011 census. By the next general elections the total picture will change in both states.

The 2009 delimitation of Assembly constituencies had done in the united AP. There had been no change in the number of Assembly constituencies in the state then, but in some constituencies, reservations were changed and the number of Assembly constituencies had been reduced in some districts and increased in others.

This time though, population increase could make significant changes. In Ranga Reddy district, Assembly constituencies are likely to increase from 14 to 24. Before the 2009 delimitation, Ranga Reddy had only six Assembly constituencies. In Hyderabad, Mahabubnagar and Nalgonda districts too the number of constituencies will increase.

In the process of delimitation, the present boundaries of Assembly constituencies will change as existing mandals may move to other segments and new mandals may be included. Especially in the 7 mandals of Khammam, that are merged into AP, the mandals of Kukkunoor, Veleirpad and six villages in Burgumpahad mandal will be merged in Jangareddygudem revenue division of West Godavari district while four mandals Kunavaram, VR Puram, Chintoor and Bhadrachalam (excluding revenue village of Bhadrachalam) is merged into Rampachodavaram revenue division of East Godavari district. If the geographical proximity of these mandals is taken into account, Kunavaram, VR Puram, Chintoor and Bhadrachalam wi-thout Bhadrachalam town, which were part of Bhadrachalam (ST) Assembly segment till now, are located adjacent to Rampachodavaram (ST) Assembly segment in Araku (ST) Lok Sabha constituency. These four mandals would be made part of Rampachodavaram Assembly segment.

Kukkunoor and Velierpad mandals of Aswaraopet Assembly constituency and six villages of Burgumpahad, part of Pinapaka Assembly segment are geographical close with Polavaram (ST) in Eluru LS constituency. These issues can be sorted out only with a delimitation exercise and the Telangana Government too is keen to get the delimitation done in the state as it is keen to increase the number of districts from 10 to 24.

“The amount of funds released for the Centre sponsored schemes depends on the number of districts, while various other factors are to be taken into consideration. And this is one of the reasons why the CM wants Telangana to have more districts.

But the delimitation of the assembly constituencies is required before altering the boundaries of the districts since overlapping of two or more revenue divisions on an assembly segment will not be allowed. Hence, the EC is aided by 2 keen governments in the delimitation exercise which could very well change the face and structure of assemblies in 2 states.