The exercise on the delimitation of the Assembly constituencies is most likely to be completed by March, according to a highly placed source associated with the Chief Minister’s office. The Centre may take a decision by January 15, the source said.
The delimitation is a part of the AP Reorganisation Act and the demand for increasing the number of seats from 175 to 225 in Andhra Pradesh and from 119 to 153 in Telangana has been raised by both the States and the Centre is now moving fast on it.
Speaking to The Hindu at the AP Secretariat, the source said, “The MPs from AP recently had a meeting with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. There seems to be movement on this in Delhi. They may take a decision by January 15. A committee headed by a former Supreme Court judge will be constituted by the first week of February and the entire exercise may be completed by March.”
There could also be two to three new Scheduled Castes constituencies, as per the information.
The procedure is most likely to be processed in the Parliament Budget session, according to the source.
The State government is already working on the final paperwork. The proposed Cabinet meet was advanced from January 17 by three to four days to take the process forward.
The delimitation is expected to take into account the geographical, demographic and related aspects. Each constituency with 10 lakh population, plus or minus 10%, will be considered for a separate Assembly segment.
