There is absolutely no possibility of increasing the assembly seats in Telangana as well as Andhra Pradesh even by next assembly elections.
The Centre has made it clear to Telugu Desam Party’s Rajya Sabha member from Andhra Pradesh in a written reply that there was no proposal before it on the enhancement in the number of assembly seats in the two Telugu states.
Rejecting the appeal by Andhra Pradesh government, the Centre said the assembly seats would be enhanced only after calculation of population in 2026 according to the Article 170 (3) in the Constitution of India.
Both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh chief ministers had earlier written to the Centre several times to enhance the assembly seats from 119 to 153 seats and 175 to 225 seats in their respective states, as per the provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.
Though the Union home ministry appeared to have given the consent to the proposal and even moved the cabinet note to this effect a few months ago, it did not proceed further as the BJP leadership did not evince in it due to political reasons.
As a result, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government went ahead with early elections only for 119 seats. Subsequently, the Modi government shelved the proposal once and for all.
If the reply given by the Centre is taken into consideration, Telangana will go for the same number of 119 seats in 2023 and AP for 175 assembly seats in 2024.
