Hyderabad: EC releases schedule for two council elections under MLA quota

Hyderabad : The Election Commission of India on Thursday announced the schedule for two Legislative Council seats under the MLA quota and the election would be held on January 29.

The Commission would release the notification for the election on January 11 and the process of filing nominations would start on the same day. The last date for filing the nominations would be on January 18. The scrutiny of the nominations would be taken up on January 19 and the last date for withdrawal of the candidature is on January 22. The polling will be held on January 29 from 9 am to 4 pm in the Assembly premises and results will be announced on the same day.

The two MLC seats under the MLA quota were vacant after the resignations of BRS members Kadiyam Srihari and Kaushik Reddy, who was elected to the Assembly from Station Ghanpur and Huzurabad respectively in the recently held Assembly elections.

The Congress and the BRS are likely to get one seat each by virtue of the strength in the Assembly. The Congress party which has 64 members in the Assembly is poised to get one seat easily. Similarly, the BRS would also get one seat but it would require support from the AIMIM. The election process would be interesting if the Congress party decides to field candidates for the second seat. The role of AIMIM and BJP would become crucial in the election because they have seven and eight seats respectively.

Along with the MLA quota, two more seats are likely to be filled soon. The two seats under the Governor’s quota are pending. The BRS while in power had recommended the names of D Sravan and Kurra Satyanarayana. The Governor rejected the names sent by the BRS. The BRS approached the High Court on the rejection of the nominations and the cases are slated to come for hearing on Friday.