Chief Minister Revanth Reddy was briefed on the implications of the delimitation process and its impact on parliamentary seat allocation across states.
Political analyst Inaganti Ravi Kumar met the Chief Minister at his residence on Thursday and presented a detailed report on the expected changes and their consequences for Telangana and other southern states.
The Chief Minister said that there is no question of stepping back on this issue, reaffirming his commitment to safeguarding Telangana’s representation in Parliament.
The report, which includes an in-depth analysis from 2003 to 2008 covering past delimitation exercises in the Telugu states, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, highlights the declining parliamentary representation of southern states.
Despite various methods of allocation – population percentage, pro-rata basis or the 2011 census data – the southern share in the Lok Sabha is projected to shrink from 24% to 19% or even lower, he explained.
Ravi pointed out that although the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill of 2014 provided for an increase of 34 Assembly seats in Telangana and 50 in Andhra Pradesh, the constitutional restriction under Article 170 prevented implementation until 2026.
While the Centre has repeatedly cited this limitation in Parliament, it bypassed the restriction in Jammu and Kashmir by increasing seven Assembly seats through a special Bill, he said.
Due to this delay in seat expansion, both Telugu states collectively lost 84 additional Assembly seats over two election cycles (2018 and 2023). Moreover, SC and ST communities in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh lost out on 20 additional reserved seats, which should have been created as part of the reorganisation process, the report said.
If they have TTD we have the YTD
Chief Minister Revanth Reddy responded to the TTD controversy while launching the ‘Build Now’ portal at the Ravindra Bharathi here. “Why do we ask them for darshan with letters from our MLAs? If they have the TTD, we have the YTD. Is there no Ram in Bhadrachalam? Don’t we have Shiva temples?” he asked.
“KTR asked why the government is holding the Miss India pageant. What is KTR’s problem? Do they not want tourism in Hyderabad,” he asked.
He clarified that the Miss India pageant is a great opportunity and that we are organising it for the 72nd time.
