The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday announced the schedule for the elections for five seats of Legislative Council, to be elected by MLAs. They include four seats which are falling vacant on March 29.
According to the ECI, the MLCs – Rudraju Padmaraju, Singam Basava Punnaiah, G Thippe Swamy and Nannapaneni Rajakumari will retire on March 29.
As per Section 23 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014, the number of seats in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council to be filled through election by the Members of the Legislative Assembly has been being fixed as 17, but under Fourth Schedule read with Section 22(2) of the said Act, the number of Members in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council elected by the members of Legislative Assembly have been allocated as 16, i.e. one short.
In terms of Section 108 of the said Act, this inconsistency was referred to the Central Government (Ministry of Home Affairs) for removing the said inconsistency. The Ministry of Home Affairs has advised that the said vacant seat may be filled up now. Therefore, election will be held to fill five vacancies instead of the aforesaid four vacancies.
The notification for the elections will be issued on 10th March; the last date of making nominations will be 17th March and they would be scrutinised on 18th March. The last date for withdrawal of candidature will be 20th March and polling will be held on 27th March from 9 AM to 4 PM. The counting of votes will be done on 27th March at 5 PM. (INN)