After a gap of nearly six months, the Election Commission of India has given green signal for the conduct of elections to three MLC seats in Andhra Pradesh and six in Telangana, which were postponed due to the second wave of Coronavirus pandemic.
The EC on Sunday announced schedule for the conduct of the MLC elections under the MLAs’ quota. The notification would be issued on November 9, last date of nominations is November 16, scrutiny of nominations would be held on November 17 and the last date for withdrawal of nominations is November 22.
The polling, if required would be held on November 29 from 9 am to 4 pm; and the counting of votes would take place on the same day from 5 pm.
According to the EC bulletin, the term of office of the three MLCs in Andhra Pradesh – Chinna Govinda Reddy Devasani (YSR Congress party), Mohammed Ahmed Shariff (Telugu Desam Party) and Somu Veerraju (Bharatiya Janata Party) – ended on May 31 last.
Similarly, the term of six MLCs in Telangana -- Akula Lalitha, Mohammed Fareeduddin, Gutha Sukender Reddy, Vidyasagar Nethi, Venkateshwartu Rodakunti and Kadiyam Srihari (all Telangana Rashtra Samithi) – came to an end on June 3.
The elections were supposed to be held in May itself, but the EC postponed the same due to outbreak of the second wave of COVID-19 in the country and said it would take up the election after the pandemic situation significantly improves and conditions become conducive to hold above mentioned biennial elections.
Since these MLCs have to be elected under MLAs’ quota and both the YSR Congress party and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi have more than the required numbers in AP and Telangana assemblies respectively, they could easily bag these seats, even without the conduct of the elections.
