In a last minute change, former Assembly Speaker and Telugu Desam leader, Pratibha Bharathi filed her nomination papers on Thursday for the bye-election caused by the death of Paladagu Venkata Rao to Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council, while another TDP leader M.A. Sharief, BJP leader Somu Veera Raju and YSR Congress leader Govinda Reddy filed the papers for the other three seats.
Besides the by-poll, elections are being held to fill three other regular vacancies in the AP Legislative Council. While TDP has the strength to win three seats, it has allotted one seat to BJP, its alliance partner. The YSR Congress Party has the strength to win the fourth seat.
Although the TDP polit bureau on Wednesday decided to nominate a Scheduled Caste candidate and a minority candidate for the two seats it decided to contest and named Jupudi Prabhakar Rao for the vacancy caused by the bye-election and M.A. Shareef for the other seat. However, Mr. Rao had to be replaced at the last minute by Ms. Pratibha Bharathi by the party leadership after it was found that he did not have voting right in Andhra Pradesh, which was mandatory for filing the nomination papers.
With only the candidates chosen by the respective parties filing their nomination papers, it is expected that all the four would be declared elected unanimously after the process of scrutiny and last date of withdrawals is over.
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