Congress’ one more flipflop on bifurcation promise

Congress Party led UPA government in the bifurcation Act promised to increase the Assembly Seats in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana by 2019 elections. But the party’s former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh today announced that his party will not support the move since TRS and TDP are encouraging defections in the name of delimitation.

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Jairam Ramesh who is the member of the team who drafted the bifurcation bill went on to say West Bengal with 10 Crore population has 294 seats while both the Telugu States with 8 Crore population have same number of seats. So there is no need to increase the number of seats. This is a stance in contradiction to their earlier position when the state is divided.

Due to Congress’ mindless drafting of the bill back then, there needs to be a constitutional amendment to ensure the Assembly seats increase by 2019. Since Congress has the majority in Rajya Sabha, with this announcement, Bill may not be passed even though BJP puts it. Congress can not field candidates in 294 seats for 2019 and so they see no point in supporting the increase of seats.