HYDERABAD: The election of two Legislative Council members under the MLA quota, for which the Election Commission of India released the schedule on Thursday, is most likely to be unanimous unless the ruling Congress opts to field candidates for both seats.
The bypoll has been necessitated due to the resignation of BRS MLCs Kadiyam Srihari and Padi Kaushik Reddy from the Council following their election as MLAs, The tenure ends on November 30, 2027.
For each seat, support of 40 MLAs is required. With the Congress having a House strength of 65, it is guaranteed one seat, but does not have the strength for the second. The BRS, the main Opposition, has 39 MLA and will invariably depend on the AIMIM with seven legislators to cross the magic figure.
However, there was no clarity on the stance of the AIMIM or the BJP, which has eight MLAs.
There is no scope for the BJP or the AIMIM to field candidates on their own as it requires the support of 10 MLAs to propose the candidature of each contestant, which both parties lack.
If the Congress fields two candidates, it will force polling. In such a scenario, the voting would be carried out with first, second and third preferences, with cross-voting also a possibility.
A similar situation is expected to arise in the Rajya Sabha polls, as three seats will fall vacant on April 2, when the tenure of BRS’ Joginapally Santosh Kumar, Badugula Lingaiah Yadav and Vaddiraju Ravichandra will end.
As this requires a strength of 31 MLAs to win a seat, the Congress is expected to bag two seats and the BRS, one. However, polling will be necessitated if the Congress opts to field three candidates.
The ECI will notify the bypoll for the two MLC seats on January 11, with January 18 as the last date for filing nominations. As per the schedule, nominations will be scrutinised on January 19, with January 22 as the last date for withdrawal of nominations. The polling will be held from 9 am to 4 pm on January 29, if required, followed by the counting of votes at 5 pm and declarations of results on the same day.
