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  km² (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.