The Chief Election Commissioner's (CEC) election notification to Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council for graduates' and teachers' constituencies was issued on Tuesday inviting nominations from the candidates for the elections.
The last date for filing the nominations is February 22nd. No nominations can be filed on February 16th and 20th as both the days are declared as holidays. As of February 15th, 4 persons have filed their nominations.
Sudhir Reddy Yeluri has filed papers for Prakasam-Nellore-Chittoor graduates' constituency, both Venkata Krishnaiah Molakalapalle and Chennupati Ramanjaneyulu have filed papers for Prakasam-Nellore-Chittoor teachers' constituency, and Arakala Krishna Goud filed papers for Mahaboobnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad teachers' constituency.
Elections will be held on March 13th, date of scrutiny is February 22nd, and withdrawals will be done on February 25th, and then the final list of contestants will be prepared.
While announcing the election schedule, Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwar Lal informed mediapersons at the Secretariat on Tuesday that the CEC is deputing election officers to supervise the training to be imparted to voters.
The candidates' nominations have to be subscribed by 10% of the electors or 10 electors of the respective constituency as proposers. The security deposit is Rs. 10,000 for general candidates, and Rs. 5000 for SC and ST candidates. There will be no symbols for elections to the Legislative Council.
As regards the poll code or complaints, so far one complaint has been made against the Minister for Primary Education Sailajanath who is believed to have held a meeting with his officers on February 9th. The minister has attracted the Election Code of Conduct that has come into force from February 8th.
The complaint is to be forwarded to the CEC, Bhanwar Lal informed.
In all, 6 MLCs are to be elected, 3 from the graduates' constituencies and 3 from the teachers' constituencies.