Schedule for conduct of elections for six MLCs under MLA quota in Telangana State has been issued, according to information.
The notification will be issued on May 14 for the elections to be held on June 1 from 9am to 4 pm. Counting of votes will be conducted on the same day followed by announcement of results. Nominations can be filed till May 21, scrutiny will be on 22 and withdrawals will be by 25.
The elections are necessitated by the retirement of seven MLCs – K R Amos, Nagapuri Rajalingam, Peer Shabbir Ahmed, Balasani Laxminarayana, Bodakunti Venkateswarlu, K. Yadav Reddy and D. Srinivas — on March 29, 2015.
As per sub-section (1) Section 23 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014, the number of seats in the Telangana Legislative Council to be filled through election by the Members of the Legislative Assembly has been being fixed as 14, but under Fourth Schedule of the said Act, the number of Members in the Telangana Legislative Council elected by the Members of Legislative Assembly have been allocated is 15, i.e. one extra. 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 on the retirement of above mentioned seven members, one seat vacated by Sh. K. R. Amos shall cease to exist and shall not be filled up in accordance with sub-clause (B) of clause (I) of sub-section (2) of Section 23 of Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014 and rest of six seats shall be filled by election by Members of Legislative Assembly. That is to say, election may be held to fill six vacancies instead of the aforesaid seven vacancies. Accordingly, the Commission has decided to hold Biennial Election to the Telangana Legislative Council by the Members of Legislative Assembly to fill six vacancies so arisen.
In Andhra Pradesh
Election to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council by Members of the Assembly to fill regular vacancies of three Members and a bye-election to fill the casual vacancy in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council, by the members of the Legislative Assembly will also be held. Besides, there is a casual vacancy, occurred in the State Legislative Council of Andhra Pradesh elected by the members of Legislative Assembly due to death of Paladugu Venkata Rao on January 19, 2015, whose term of office is up-to and including 29th March, 2017. The Commission has also decided to hold a bye-election to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council by MLAs to fill up the above mentioned casual vacancy also according to the above mentioned schedule, according to Election Commission of India. (NSS)