Biennial elections to 23 seats of Legislative Councils of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh from local authorities’ constituencies will be held on December 10 while the process for elections to nine seats by the members of their respective Legislative Assemblies began on Tuesday.
The Election Commission on Tuesday announced the schedule for elections to 12 seats of the Telangana Legislative Council and 11 seats of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council from nine and eight districts, respectively.
The term of 12 sitting members of the Telangana Legislative Council is going to expire on January 4, 2022. They include Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter and former MP K. Kavitha and its protem Chairman, V. Bhoopal Reddy.
The poll notification will be issued on November 6 while the last date for filing of nominations will be November 23. The scrutiny of nominations will be taken up the next day.
According to the schedule, November 26 will be the last date for withdrawal of nominations while polling will be held on December 10 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Counting of votes will be taken up on December 14.
The poll body said model code of conduct will come into force with immediate effect in the constituencies concerned. Following the announcement, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao cancelled his visit to Warangal district.
The EC said guidelines of Covid-19 already issued by it have to be followed during the entire election process.
Same election schedule will apply to neighboring Andhra Pradesh, where the term of 11 sitting members expired on August 11. Three of these seats were vacant since June 4, 2019 due to non-availability of desired electoral roll.
Meanwhile, the process of elections to six seats of Telangana Legislative Council and three seats of Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council by the members of their respective Legislative Assembly (MLAs) began on Tuesday with the issue of poll notifications. The elections will be held on November 29.
In Andhra Pradesh, the returning officer and deputy secretary to state legislature reported that no nominations were filed on the first day.
The last date of filing nominations will be November 16. The scrutiny of nominations will be taken up on November 17 while November 22 will be the last date for withdrawal of nominations.
Polling will be held on November 29 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The counting of votes will be taken up the same day.
The term of office of the sitting MLCs of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana expired on May 31 and June 3, respectively.
However, the elections could not be conducted due to outbreak of the second wave of Covid-19 in the country.
