Hyderabad: BRS pitches for combined polls for 2 MLC seats

Hyderabad: Former MP B Vinod Kumar on Saturday questioned the intentions of ECI following separate notifications issued on MLC elections for two seats. He demanded that the combined elections be conducted for two seats.

The elections were necessitated with the resignation of two sitting MLCs of BRS, Kadiyam Srihari and Padi Kaushik Reddy who got elected to the State legislative Assemblies from Station Ghanpur and Huzurabad constituencies respectively. Vinod pointed out that in 2021 both Srihari and Kaushik Reddy were elected to the Council following single notification. “What is the need for separate notifications for electing new candidates in their position,” he asked.

After taking legal opinion from the party’s legal team, Vinod found this to be fishy and affirmed that the party will be writing a letter to ECI shortly. “Both the leaders have resigned from the MLC post after getting elected as MLAs on the same day and also their resignations were approved at the same time. How practical it is to conduct the elections separately. Holding separate polls is likely to benefit the Congress party,” he felt.

It is believed that the separate polls will help Congress MLAs vote separately for each of the party’s MLC candidates. With 64 MLAs, the winning chances of two Congress MLCs will go up if MLC elections are held separately. The BRS which was hoping of bagging one of the MLC positions is said to have been upset with the decision.