Vijayawada: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday has released MLC poll schedule for biennial elections to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council on March 13 to elect 13 MLCs – eight from local authorities and five from graduates and teachers’ constituencies.
The eight local authority constituencies are Nellore, West Godavari, East Godavari, Srikakulam, Chittoor and Kurnool, whose sitting members are going to retire on March 29; and Anantapur and Kadapa, whose MLCs will retire on May 1.
The three graduates’ constituencies going for polls are Prakasam-Nellore-Chittoor, Kadapa-Anantapur-Kurnool and Srikakulam-Vizianagaram-Visakhapatnam. The two teachers’ constituencies are Prakasam-Nellore-Chittoor and Kadapa-Anantapur-Kurnool. All these five sitting MLCs will retire on March 29.
According to ECI, notification for MLC elections will be issued on February 16. The last date of filing nominations is February 23. Nominations will be scrutinised on February 24. Last date for withdrawal of nominations is February 27. Polling for electing the new MLCs will be held on March 13 from 8 am to 4 pm. Counting of votes will be on March 16.
The Election Commission has announced that Model Code of Conduct (MCC) will come into force with immediate effect in the constituencies concerned. Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh will depute a senior officer to each of these constituencies to ensure compliance with MCC and Covid-19 guidelines till polls are conducted.
The sitting MLCs from local authorities who are going to retire and their dates of retirement are – Ganapathi Deepak Reddy and Mareedu Ravindranatha Reddy (March 29), Venkati Narayana Reddy, Angara Rama Mohan, Manthena Venkata Satyanarayana Raju, Chikkala Ramachandra Rao, Vijaya Rama Raju Satrucharla, B.N. Rajasimhulu and K.E. Prabhakar (May 1). Five sitting MLCs from graduates’ and teachers’ constituencies who will retire on March 29 are Yandapalli Srinivasulu Reddy, Gopal Reddy Vennapusa, P.V.N. Madhav, Vitapu Balasubrahmanyam and Katti Narasimha Reddy.
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