HYDERABAD: Telangana and Andhra Pradesh must wait for seven more years for the delimitation of their Assembly seats. The number of seats in both the State Assemblies will be increased only after 2026, in time for the 2028-elections.
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, in response to a question raised by Congress MP A Revanth Reddy in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, August 3, 2021, said that the delimitation of seats in the Telugu States would not be taken up alongside Jammu and Kashmir.
“The total number of seats in the Assembly of each State will be readjusted after the first Census is published after 2026,” the Minister of State told the Congress MP Revanth Reddy. The Congress MP wanted to know whether the Centre was planning to undertake simultaneous delimitation of constituencies in Telangana alongside Jammu and Kashmir or not.
Nityanand Rai said, “Section 26(1) of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, inter-alia states that subject to the provisions contained in article 170 of the Constitution and without prejudice to section 15 of this Act, the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of the successor States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana shall be increased from 175 and 119 to 225 and 153, respectively. As per Article 170(3) of the Indian Constitution, the total number of seats in the Assembly of each State will be readjusted after the first Census is published post the year 2026.”