Vinod Kumar urges Amit Shah to increase Assembly seats in Telangana

Hyderabad: Telangana State Planning Board Vice Chairman B Vinod Kumar urged union Home Minister Amit Shah to amend Section 26 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act to increase the Assembly seats in Telangana.

Taking strong objection to the Central Government’s explanation and reasons on increasing the Assembly seats in the State in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, Vinod Kumar wrote a letter to the union Home Minister.

He said a simple amendment to Section 26 of AP Reorganisation Act will suffice without any amendment to Article 170 of the Constitution for increasing the Assembly seats in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. “However, for reasons best known to the Government, the union Home Ministry has not taken any steps in this regard” said Vinod Kumar.

Interestingly, the Central Government while enacting the J&K Reorganisation Act had increased the Assembly seats from 107 to 114 without amending Article 170. The Telangana State Planning Board Vice Chairman further reminded that Central Government had set up a Delimitation Commission in March 2020 and it had submitted its final report in May early this year.

“Unfortunately, in the case of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, no such steps were taken in the last eight years. It appears that your Ministry did this in J&K but did not do so in both Telugu States for political reasons” said Vinod Kumar in the letter.
He reminded the union Home Minister that AP Reorganisation Act was amended earlier when seven mandals in Telangana were transferred to Andhra Pradesh by way of an ordinance, which was later on passed in the Parliament by way of amendment.

“If the Home Ministry has political will, it can introduce an amendment bill to section 26 of AP Reorganisation Act in the Monsoon session to ensure the Assembly seats are increased in both the Telugu States,” Vinod Kumar said, adding that BJP and the Central Government believed in the concept of “One Nation, One Law”