The hectic lobbying by Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao with the Centre notwithstanding, the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership is said to be not keen on increasing the number of assembly seats in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
According to information from the national capital, the BJP leadership is learnt to have decided to put the issue of increasing the assembly seats in AP and Telangana on the backburner, on the advice of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Till recently, former union minister M Venkaiah Naidu had been lobbying for the Telugu states in this regard and he had prevailed upon the Union home ministry to prepare the draft bill after getting clearance from the law department.
However, Venkaiah is no more in the active politics now after he was nominated as the NDA candidate for the Presidential elections. So, there is none to take up the case with the Centre.
The BJP leadership is apparently of the view that the party is not going to benefit in any manner from the increased number of assembly seats in AP and Telangana which would serve the political interests of only the Telugu Desam Party and Telangana Rashtra Samithi in their respective ruling states.
So, why should the BJP take the initiative for the benefit of other political parties, the Sangh argued.
Moreover, the increase in number of assembly seats will not bring in any additional benefits to the people and on the other hand, they would have to face the hegemony of more public representatives.
It is only going to be an additional burden on the economy, as the MLAs would have to be given all the privileges, including vehicles, security and constituency development funds. There would be looting of more public money by these MLAs, the Sangh felt.
Yet, Naidu and KCR are going to Delhi on Monday to make a last ditch effort to get the number of assembly seats increased!
