At last, the YSR Congress party secured absolute majority in the Andhra Pradesh state legislative council, with the unanimous election of 11 party candidates as MLCs under local bodies’ quota on Friday.
There was only one independent candidate for the MLC elections under local bodies’ quota in Anantapur district, but he, too, withdrew his candidature on Friday, the last day for the withdrawal of nominations.
In all the other districts, there were no contenders for the MLC elections, as the opposition parties do not have enough strength in the mandal parishads and zilla parishads for fielding their candidates.
The YSRC candidates who were elected unopposed are: Indukuru Raghu Raju from Vizianagaram, Varudu Kalyani and Vamsi Krishna from Visakhapatnam, Ananta Uday Bhaskar from East Godavari, Talasila Raghuram and Mondithoka Arun Kumar from Krishna, Ummareddy Venkateshwarlu and Murugudu Hanumantha Rao from Guntur, Tumati Madhava Rao from Prakasam, Krishna Raghava Jayendra Bharat from Chittoor and Y S Shivarami Reddy from Anantapur.
Already, three YSRC MLCs were elected under the MLAs’ quota last week. With this, the total strength of the YSRC in the 58-member state legislative council went up to 32. However, one of the YSRC MLCs Kareemunnisa died of heart attack a couple of days ago.
The strength of the TDP has come down to 15. Bharatiya Janata party has one and Progressive Democratic Front has four.
Now that the YSRC withdrew its proposal to abolish the state legislative council, the newly-elected YSRC MLCs will continue for their full term.
