This story is from February 23, 2015

Defectors set to dominate council polls in two states

An unprecedented 41 vacancies are to be filled in the first biennial elections to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh legislative councils after the bifurcation of the undivided state.
Defectors set to dominate council polls in two states
An unprecedented 41 vacancies are to be filled in the first biennial elections to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh legislative councils after the bifurcation of the undivided state. Among the aspirants for these seats are 18 sitting MLCs who defected to the ruling parties in the two states as their terms were slated to end in 2015.
Telangana Rashtra Samithi would need to accommodate 11 defectors from Congress and TDP in the 19 vacancies to be filled in the Telangana Legislative Council (TLC) this year.
Telugu Desam Party would have to nominate 7 defectors from the Congress among the 22 vacancies to be filled in the AP Legislative Council (APLC).
Out of the 36 sitting members in TLC, 17 are retiring. In AP, 11 members are completing their term out of 41 sitting MLCs. More seats are to be filled up since 11 seats are vacant in APLC and two seats in TLC from among the seats earmarked for Local Authority Constituencies (LACs) as these remained unfilled from 2013 onwards in the absence of elected local bodies (electoral college) in these districts. Now, with the elected local bodies in place in these districts, these vacancies have also to be filled.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has issued notifications for the election to two teachers’constituencies in APLC and two graduates’ constituencies in TLC. In due course, notifications will be issued for election of members from 13 LACs in APLC and nine LACs in TLC. Other vacancies to be filled include four members to be elected by MLAs of AP and seven members by MLAs of Telangana, and three members to be nominated under governor’s quota in APLC and one member in the same quota in TLC.
Of the 17 retiring members in TLC, 10 originally belonged to the Congress, and five to TDP and two were independent candidates.
However, after the formation of Telangana state, eight of these members from Congress and three from TDP defected to the ruling TRS, inspired by the leadership of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and mainly with an eye on reelection. Now, 11 of the retiring members belong to TRS, two each to Congress and TDP, and two are independents.

Apart from these retiring members, the TRS would have to accommodate two cabinet ministers, Kadiam Srihari and Tummala Nageswara Rao, who are keen to be elected to the legislative council.
With the defection of Khammam zilla parishad chairperson and other local body members to the TRS, the ruling party may try to get Tummala Nageswara Rao elected from Khammam local authority constituency. Kadiam Srihari can be elected from Warangal LAC though former MLC Konda Muralidhar Rao may be a contender for the seat.
There is, however, some uncertainty whether Warangal, Khammam and Rangareddy LAC seats can be filled since the Warangal and Khammam municipal corporations and the GHMC are without elected bodies, which means that the electoral college is not fully constituted in these three districts.
TRS can hope to wrest Nizamabad seat from the TDP since it has good strength in the LAC. It may be easy for the TRS to win the other LACs, including Nalgonda.
Of the seven seats to be filled from the assembly, the TRS can hope to get five seats while the Congress and TDP-BJP alliance will have to be contented with one seat each. The ruling party can also get one nominated seat.
In the APLC, 13 vacancies from LACs are to be filled from nine districts. However, it is uncertain whether the council elections can be held to fill up the 10 vacancies from five districts in the absence of elected bodies in Kadapa, Ongole, Tirupati, Guntur, Kakinada and Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporations.
The 11 retiring members in APLC include two from teachers constituencies, two from LACs, four elected by MLAs, and three nominated members. Seven of the retiring members are defectors, who jumped on to TDP bandwagon after Congress was decimated in 2014 assembly polls.
The other retiring members include two from Congress, one from TDP and an independent. The TDP would have to accommodate the defectors besides re-nominating its firebrand member Nannapaneni Rajakumari, who is chief whip in the council.
The Union government would also have to amend the AP Reorganisation Act 2014 to remove certain anomalies in APLC and TLC. There has to be readjustment of seats, with an increase of three seats in LAC category and reduction of one seat from assembly quota in the TLC. Similarly, there is a proposal to increase the strength of APLC to 58 from the existing 50.
After readjustment, teachers and graduate constituencies will go up to six each, with 19 seats each earmarked for LACs and for election by MLAs, and the remaining eight seats in the nominated category of APLC.
(The writer is an MLC and a journalist)
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