By Mohammed Siddique, TwoCircles.net,
Hyderabad : When Andhra Pradesh goes to poll some time early next year, its electoral map would have completely changed by the process of delimitation of the Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies. Along with this, its demographic map would have also undergone a major change giving a clear edge to the weaker sections and minorities in a much larger number of assembly and Parliamentary constituencies.
The Muslim minority, along with the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes will be in decisive position in more than 50% of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Muslims on their own will hold the key in 15 Lok Sabha seats including Hyderabad where they have the biggest presence of 70% among electorates. Similarly they will also have a decisive position in 40 assembly seats.
After Hyderabad, Nandyal will have the biggest Muslim presence with 17.77 per cent votes followed by 15% in Kadapa and Rajampet constituencies. In Nizamabad, Kurnool, Chevella, Zaheerabad, Guntur, Adilabad, Nellore, Narasaraopeta, Hindupur, Mahbubnagar and Anantapur, they will have a vote share of 10 to 14.94 percent.
This is much bigger than the earlier number of seats where the Muslims had a decisive say. The present delimitation process was carried out on the basis of 2001 census where in the statistics about the caste and religious affiliations of votes was available up to the mandal level.
There are not 40 assembly constituencies where the Muslims constituted morethan 15% of the voters. There are constituencies like Malakpet, Karwan, Goshamahal, Charimnar, Chandrayangutta, Yakutpura, Bahadurpura, and Nampally in Hyderabad where Muslims have 90% to 30% votes. They also have similar strong position in Guntur West and Vijaywada East constituencies. Nizamabad Urabn and and Kurnool have 34.72 and 34.38per cent Muslim voters.
Nellore, Kadapa, Zaheerabad and Rajendernagar, Nandyal, Bodhan and Rayachoti assembly constituencies have more than 25% Muslim votes.
However some of these Muslim dominated seats have been reserved for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.