The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday, October 31, announced the schedule for biennial elections to the Legislative Councils of the two Telugu states, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Elections to six seats of the Telangana Legislative Council and three seats of Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council by the members of their respective Legislative Assemblies will be held on November 29.
As per the schedule announced by the ECI, poll notification will be issued on November 9. 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 am to 4 pm. The counting of votes will be taken up the same day.
The ECI said guidelines of COVID-19 already issued by it have to be followed during the entire election process. 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 the outbreak of the second wave of COVID-19 in the country.
The poll panel had stated that it would not be appropriate to hold biennial elections to the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Legislative Councils till the pandemic situation significantly improves and conditions become conducive to hold the elections.
The Commission said after re-assessing the situation in the two states after taking into consideration all relevant facts, it decided to conduct the biennial elections to the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Legislative Councils by members of respective Legislative Assembly. The MLCs of Andhra Pradesh whose term expired are Chinna Govinda Reddy Devasani, Mohammed Ahmed Shariff and Somu Veerraju. In Telangana, the term of Akulla Lalitha, Mohammed Fareeduddin, Gutha Sukender Reddy, Nethi Vidyasagar, Bodakunti Venkateshwarlu and Kadiyam Srihari expired on June 3.