HYDERABAD: Delimitation, for sure, has solved the unlimited confusion that prevailed earlier with territories criss-crossing district boundaries and reservations not matching population density. The new look of the State electoral map appears to be fair though it has come the hard way for some and as a bitter pill to swallow for others.
TELANGANA GAINS 2 PARLIAMENTARY SEATS:
Even as the figures of the 42 Lok Sabha seats and 294 Assembly constituencies remain the same, the Telangana region stands to gain two Parliament seats, Malkajgiri and Chevella.
On the other hand, Tenali in coastal Andhra and Bhadrachalam, spread over five districts, have been erased from the electoral map. The Rayalaseema region, however, remains by and large, untouched.
Telangana has benefited on one more count as the numbering begins with Adilabad being labelled as constituency number one and the tally goes on to Coastal Andhra followed by Rayalaseema. Before delimitation, the numbering used to start from Srikakulam, rounding off Miryalguda.
While Ichapuram had the tag of the first Assembly constituency, the credit has now gone to Sirpur, and, as a matter of coincidence, the last constituency number, 294, is Kuppam, represented by TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu! While Adilabad and Nizamabad districts retain their identity of solitary Parliament seats, barring some changes in regrouping, Karimnagar and Peddapalli too remain the same.
Medak district has gone for sweeping changes with the formation of Zaheerabad and doing away with Siddipet, which used run into the cantonment area of the city.
STATE CAPITAL GETS ONE MORE PARLIAMENTARY SEAT:
The State capital has an additional Parliamentary seat in the form of Malkajgiri, skirting the peripheries of the city. It covers Medchal, Malkajgiri, Qutbullapur, Kukatpally, Uppal, LB Nagar and Secunderabad Cantonment areas.
With the formation of Chevella covering the western and south-western suburb of the city, the Hyderabad constituency lives up to its name with all the seven segments being within the city.
Secunderabad has lost Maharajgunj while Khairatabad has been split into three and Asifnagar taken the shape of Nampally.
Warangal has been reserved for Scheduled Castes and Hanumkonda changed to Mahboobabad (ST) covering the forest area leading towards Khammam district.
Miryalguda has yielded place to Bhongir though the entire alignment has been reshuffled.
Mahaboobnagar remains all the same though some regrouping has been done.
Coastal Andhra has come in fo r a big change, with Harischandrapuram being erased from the Srikakulam Parliament constituency and Pathapatnam coming in its place.
Bobbili is no more on the political map and the new name is Vizianagaram.
Etcherla has been dereserved.
Parvathipuram (ST) has been removed and clubbed with some terrain of Bhadrachalam and the new constituency Araku (ST) has been formed with six Assembly segments being reserved for tribal folks and one reserved for the Scheduled Castes.
Down south, there is not much of a change, though regrouping has been done and some of the Assembly segments merged with others, while some have gone into reserved categories and others de-reserved.
However, Assembly segments in Guntur district have been completely revamped with Tenali being erased. After delimitation, a majority of the Assembly segments are within the district and don’t sneak into the neighbouring Prakasam district. Ongole has become indigenous with all the seven segments falling in Prakasam district.
The four districts of Rayalaseema have two Lok Sabha seats each and there has been no change in the delimitation process. However, Nandyal constituency is now confined only to Kurnool district and its reach in the neighbouring Prakasam is cut off with the formation of the Srisailam Assembly constituency and bringing in Dhone into its fold. The Kurnool Lok Sabha seat has Mantralayam in its fold. Hindupur has Raptadu in its fold and Nellore has been divided into rural and urban under the regrouping.