VIJAYAWADA: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has issued a notification for the conduct of elections to fill up 11 MLC seats from eight Local Authorities’ Constituencies (LACs) in Andhra Pradesh.As per the notification, the MLC elections will be held on December 10 and results will be declared on December 14. Meanwhile, the State Election Commission (SEC) issued a notification to fill up three vacant MLC seats under the MLAs’ quota.
In all, 14 vacant MLC seats will be filled up and the ruling YSRC is set to win all of them as it has clear majority in the Legislative Assembly and in local bodies. This will give the YSRC a clear majority in the 58-member Legislative Council. The YSRC will have 32 members in the council, including six nominated under the Governor’s quota.The Election Commission stated that eight seats in the council from the Local Authorities’ Constituencies fell vacant on August 11 this year with the retirement of members.
They included Buddha Venkateswara Rao, Yalamanchili Venkata Babu Rajendra Prasad, Reddy Subrahmanyam, Umareddy Venkateswarlu, Dwarampudi Jagadeeswara Rao, Buddha Naga Jagadeeswara Rao, Chalapathi Rao Pappala and Gali Saraswathi.Though the eight seats fell vacant in August itself, the ECI said the biennial elections could not be conducted as the local body polls were not held by then. “Though three more seats have been vacant since June 2019, elections could not be held due to lack of desired number of electors,” the ECI noted.
The seats which fell vacant are of those held by Payyavula Keshav of TDP from Anantapur, Annam Satish Prabhakar from Guntur and Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy from Prakasam.As per the ECI norms, elections should be conducted only when the percentage of constituent local bodies functioning and electors in position is above 75.After the completion of local body elections, the Chief Electoral Officer of Andhra Pradesh had informed the ECI that the required percentage of local bodies are in place and elections for MLC seats could be conducted.
“After taking into consideration all relevant factors and reassessing the Covid-19 situation in the State, it has been decided to conduct the biennial elections to the AP Legislative Council for LAC seats,’’ the ECI said.The Model Code of Conduct has come into force with immediate effect. The officials concerned have been directed to ensure Covid-19 protocol.
Several MLC aspirants
Though there are several aspirants for the 14 MLC seats, senior leader and former MLC Umareddy Venkateswarlu is likely to be selected once again by the YSRC leadership. The name of Marri Rajasekhar, a two-time MLA from Chilakaluripet in Guntur district, is also doing rounds