Rajya Sabha polls on March 23

Hyderabad: The biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha to fill seats three each in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, falling vacant in April-May, will be held on March 23.

The Election Commission of India, in a press release, announced the schedule for the elections for the Upper House on Friday. A notification for elections would be issued on March 5 and nominations will close on March 12. 

Scrutiny will take place the next day and the last date for withdrawals will be March 15. The date of polling is March 23 and the counting of votes will take place on March 23.

Two Rajya Sabha members retiring in April-May from Telangana are: Rapolu Anand Bhaskar (Cong) and CM Ramesh (TDP). The third member Palvai Govardhan Reddy died in June last.

Those retiring from AP are:  K Chiranjeevi, Renuka Chowdary (both Cong) and T Devender Goud (TDP). The undivided state of AP used to have a total strength of 18. However, after the bifurcation, Telangana has got seven, while AP got 11 seats. 

In Telangana, the TRS could win all the three but in AP, the TDP can win only two seats. But with more number of YSRC MLAs joining the TDP, it is possible that the TDP might corner all the three seats this time.

In fact, YSRC general secretary and Rajya Sabha member V Vijayasai Reddy voiced his concern before the Election Commission recently that YSRC MLAs were being lured into the TDP to tilt the balance of strength in favour of the TDP so that it could corner all the three seats.