At a time when the UPA government's move to bifurcate the state has reached a decisive stage, a surprise demand has come to the fore for increasing the number of Assembly constituencies in the imminent Telangana state.
What has prompted the Telangana leaders to come up with this sudden demand? The political observers say that it has to do with the ambitions of certain Telangana leaders who have set their eyes on the Legislative Council nominations.
The increase in the number of Assembly seats will automatically mean that there will be more number of Council seats under the Assembly quota.
Lot of lobbying goes on to grab these seats as they provide an assured tenure in the position of power without the need to go to the people.
According to Article 171 of the constitution, the total number of members in the Legislative Council of a State shall not be less than 40. The total number of members in the Legislative Council of a State having such a Council shall not exceed one-third of the total number of members in the Legislative Assembly of that State.
The new Telangana state Assembly will have 119 seats as per the present arrangement. This will not fulfill the council dreams of the Telangana politicians. Hence, the demand to increase the number of constituencies. Already, there is criticism that the Legislative Council has been reduced to a political rehabilitation centre for the politically unemployed leaders.
The initiative for raising the demand was taken by the senior Congress legislator from the city Marri Shashidhar Reddy. He will lead the delegation of the elected representatives of Congress from Telangana to Delhi to meet the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Telangana.
The GoM would be requested to increase the number of Assembly constituencies in Telangana State to 153, by adding 34 more seats. This will lead to unanimity in all 17 Lok Sabha segments having nine Assembly seats each.
The Sanathnagar MLA has never been active in the Telangana politics so far. Even at the peak of the Telangana movement, he was content with his duties in Delhi at the National Disaster Management Authority.
However, he now appears to have emerged as a key contender for the CM's post, along with S Jaipal Reddy, Damodar Rajanarasimha, K Jana Reddy, Savre Satyanarayana and D Srinivas.
