India's Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat on Saturday said that bye-elections for the five Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh that have been vacant since the resignation of YSRCP MPs earlier this year, would not be held along with the Assembly polls for other states, which are scheduled to be held in November and December.
Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Rawat said that the MPs had resigned with less than one year to go, for the expiry of the Lok Sabha's tenure.
“The term of the current Lok Sabha expires on June 3, 2019. The resignations of five YSRC MPs from AP were accepted on June 4. Since, there is less than one year left when the seats fell vacant, there will not be any byelections in AP,’’ Rawat was quoted as saying.
The MPs had submitted their resignations on April 6 -- the last day of budget session -- to protest against the refusal of the Central government to accord Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh.
According to a bulletin from the Lok Sabha, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had accepted the resignations of the MPs with effect from June 20 this year.
The MPs are YV Subba Reddy, Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy, Vara Prasadarao Velagapalli, Midhun Reddy and YS Avinash Reddy.
The Speaker on May 29 had requested the MPs to reconsider their resignations, but they met her in the national capital on June 6 to submit fresh letters, urging her to accept their resignations.
The development had come amidst a high-pitch political turmoil in the state over Special Category Status, shortly after the ruling TDP, pulled out of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, accusing it of 'cheating 5 crore Andhra people'.