more-in The State election authority, the Chief Electoral Officer, has finally fixed the boundaries of the three Assembly constituencies from which seven mandals were merged with neighbouring Andhra Pradesh post-bifurcation. Accordingly, the revenue mandals in Cherla, Dummugudem, Venkatapuram and Wazeed remain as part of the Bhadrachalam Assembly constituency while the entire Bhadrachalam revenue mandal, except for the revenue village, have been merged with Andhra Pradesh. The Aswaraopet Assembly constituency will comprise of four mandals - Aswaraopet, Chandragonda, Dammapet and Mulakalapalle - while Pinapaka Assembly constituency will have Pinapaka, Aswapuram, Manuguru, Gundala and Burgampadu, except for six villages in Burgampadu mandal. The CEO’s office has sent details of the status of the three constituencies following a request from the Union Home Ministry seeking clarification on the status of these three segments after the removal of certain mandals and villages from them. Enhancement of seats The Centre’s communication comes in the light of a query raised by the Election Commission of India which sought the details while examining the request for enhancement of the Assembly seats from 119 to 153 in Telangana and 175 to 225 in Andhra Pradesh as part of assurances given during the bifurcation of the State. The demarcation of the constituencies resulted in significant reduction in the number of voters in Bhadrachalam Assembly constituency in particular. According to information in the Telangana CEO’s website, the constituency reserved for Scheduled Tribes (STs) had 2.16 lakh valid voters, which had dropped to 1.25 lakh after the summary revision of electoral rolls in March. Aswaraopet Assembly constituency too witnessed a major change in the number of electors which came down from 1.67 lakh to 1.29 lakh, while the number was down by over 10,000 in Pinapaka Assembly constituency from 1.71 lakh to 1.6 lakh. ST constituencies Senior officials said the three constituencies would continue to be part of the 119 constituencies of the State and elections, as and when declared, would be held for the seats albeit with truncated numbers. The constituencies continue to be reserved for STs in spite of the loss of population witnessed post ceding of mandals to AP. “It is for the State government to take up caste wise enumeration of voters and communicate the request to the election authority if it wants any change in the reservation pattern,” a senior official said.

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