The process for filling the six vacancies in the Legislative Council in the MLAs quota has been set in motion by the Election Commission with November 29 as the date of poll.
The term of six MLCs – Akula Lalitha, Mohammed Fareeduddin, Gutha Sukhender Reddy, Nethi Vidyasagar, Bodakunti Venkateshwarlu and Kadiyam Srihari – expired on June 3 this year. Though the vacancies were to be filled before the expiry of the term of the members, the Election Commission deferred the process in view of the COVID pandemic.
The Commission in a release recalled that it had decided not to go ahead with the polls earlier as it would not be appropriate to hold the biennial election to the vacant seats till the pandemic situation significantly improved and conditions became conducive to hold the election. In this background, the Commission on Sunday issued schedule for the election of six seats including that of former Council chairman Mr. Sukhender Reddy.
The notification for the election would be issued on November 9 and November 16 would be the last date for filing nominations. The nominations would be scrutinised the next day and the last date for their withdrawal was November 22. The MLAs would cast vote between 9 am and 4 pm on November 29 to elect the candidates nominated by political parties and the counting of votes would be held at 5 pm the same day.
With more more than 100 MLAs in its fold, including those belonging to the MIM, the ruling TRS is likely to retain all the six seats as the Opposition Congress and the BJP are unlikely to muster suitable numbers to field their nominees for the posts. The EC has set December 1 as deadline for the completion of the election process.
One more vacancy that arose out of completion of the term of Prof M. Srinivas Reddy in the Governor’s quota was pending clearance by the Governor after the Cabinet approved the candidature of TRS leader P. Kaushik Reddy.
SUGGESTED AS INSET
Schedule released for
three seats in AP Council
The Election Commission issued schedule for filling three vacancies in the AP Legislative Council on Sunday.
The term of three MLCs – Devasani Chinna Govinda Reddy, Mohammed Ahmed Shariff and Somu Veerraju – ended on May 31 this year.
