Three MLC seats to go to polls on November 29 in Andhra Pradesh

Vijayawada: Notification has been issued to fill three MLC seats under MLAs quota. AP Legislative council deputy secretary and returning officer for MLC elections, Subba Reddy, issued notification on Tuesday for these elections.

The vacancies arose with the retirement of Md Ahmed Shariff, former legislative council chairman, Chinna Govinda Reddy Devasani and Somu Veerraju on May 31.

The nominations will be received by the returning officer till 3pm on November 16. These can be filed by the candidate or his authorised representative from 11am to 3pm daily on or before November 16. Withdrawals will be allowed till 3pm on November 22.

Subba Reddy said the polling will be on November 29 from 9am to 4pm at Assembly Bhavan and the counting of votes will be taken up at 5pm the same day.

MLAs form the electorate for these polls. The YSR Congress has more than the required numbers in the state assembly and it is set to bag all the three MLC seats up for polls.

Besides these three posts, the ruling party is set to win another 11 MLC posts under the local bodies quota in the coming days. The YSRC would get a majority in the Legislative Council by winning a total of 14 MLC seats.

The ruling party at present has 18 MLCs which would be increased to 21 with the win of three MLA quota MLCs and further to 32 out of the total 58 seats, by grabbing another 11 MLC seats from the local bodies quota. The ruling party would grab the posts of council chairman and deputy chairmen posts on its own strength.

According to sources, the YSRC might give the MLC post to DC Govinda Reddy who was party in-charge for Badvel constituency. One MLC post could be given to an SC and another to a woman.

There is huge competition in YSRC to get the MLC posts. Two to four hopefuls are seeking these posts from each district.