Amaravati, Nov 9 (PTI): The Election Commission of India on Tuesday issued the notification for conduct of biennial elections to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council to fill three vacant seats under the Legislative Assembly quota.

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Simultaneously, the ECI also announced the schedule for conduct of elections to the Council from eight Local Authorities Constituencies (LACs) to fill 11 vacancies.

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Given its strength in the Assembly and the local bodies (urban and rural), the ruling YSR Congress is comfortably placed to bag all the 14 seats and thereby secure an absolute majority in the 58-member Council.

Interestingly, the Jagan Mohan Reddy government hurriedly adopted a statutory resolution in the state Assembly in January last year requesting the Government of India to abolish the Council "in public interest."

At that time, the YSRC had just nine members in the Council while the Telugu Desam Party enjoyed majority with 28.

Now, after the biennial polls are completed by December 14, the YSRC's number will shoot up to 32, including six nominated under the Governor's quota.

The YSRC, hence, has given up the demand for abolition of the Council, saying it's now for the Centre to take a call.

Three Council members, elected by the MLAs, retired at the end of their six-year tenure on May 31 this year. The biennial elections were not held at that time due to the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic.

Elections for these three seats will now be held on November 29, if required.

Nominations could be filed till November 16 and the last date for withdrawal is November 22.

As it has 150 members (excluding the Speaker) in the 175-member Assembly, the ruling YSR Congress will win all the three vacant seats in the Council.

As such, the election could be a unanimous affair.

Eight seats in the Council from the LACs fell vacant on August 11 this year following the retirement of sitting members. The biennial elections for these seats could not be conducted since the local bodies were not in place.

Three more seats had been vacant since June 2019 but elections were not held for due to "non-availability of desired electoral roll."

Now that elections to almost all the local bodies (urban and rural) have been completed across the state, the AP Chief Electoral Officer K Vijayanand intimated the ECI that the percentage of constituent local bodies functioning and the electors in position was above 75 per cent.

"The Commission having re-assessed the Covid-19 pandemic situation and taking into consideration all relevant facts, has now decided to conduct the biennial election to the Council from the eight LACs," the ECI release said.

Notification for these seats will be issued on November 16 and the last date for nominations is the 23rd.

While November 26 is the last date for withdrawal of nominations, polling is scheduled for December 10.

Counting of votes will be taken up on December 14, according to the ECI announcement.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)