Rayalaseema is a geographic region in the
Indian state of
Andhra Pradesh. It includes the southern districts of
Anantapur,
Chittoor,
Kadapa and
Kurnool. With an area of 67,526 km
2 (42.00% of the state territory), Rayalaseema is larger than
Kerala,
Punjab,
Himachal Pradesh and nine other states in India. It has a population of 15,184,908 (2011 census), which is 30.03% of the state population. Rayalaseema borders the state of
Tamil Nadu to the south,
Karnataka to the west,
Telangana to the north and the
Coastal Andhra region of Andhra Pradesh to the east. The region contributes 52 assembly segments to Andhra Pradesh state legislature and 8 parliamentary constituencies to the Indian parliament. These
Telugu-speaking districts were part of the
Madras Presidency until 1953, then they were carved out to form
Andhra State. From 1953 to 1956, the region was part of Andhra State. In 1956, the
Telangana region was merged with
Andhra State to form
Andhra Pradesh State. However, in 2014 this area was split off again to form a separate State. Earlier,
Bellary district was part of Rayalaseema. With the formation of states based on languages, Bellary was joined to
Karnataka. The city of
Bellary, which has large numbers of both Kannada and Telugu speakers, was included in
Mysore after protracted debate and controversy. On 2 February, 1970, three taluks from
Kurnool i.e,
Markapur,
Cumbum and
Giddalur were merged along with some other taluks of
Nellore district and
Guntur district to form
Prakasam district.