The Election Commission of India on Thursday announced indefinite postponement of biennial elections to the state legislative councils of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana due to outbreak of second wave of Covid-19.
According to an official release from the ECI, elections for three vacancies in the Andhra Pradesh state legislative council and six vacancies in Telangana legislative council are scheduled to be held this month due to the expiry of the term of the sitting MLCs of AP and Telangana by May 31 and June 3 respectively.
These MLCs have to be elected under MLAs’ quota. Since both the YSR Congress and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi have more than the required numbers in AP and Telangana assemblies, they could easily bag these seats, even without the conduct of the elections.
As per the provisions of Section 16 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the seats of State Legislative Council which are going to be vacant on expiration of the term of the members, are required to be filled up by holding biennial election before the said expiration of the term.
The EC, however, said it had reviewed the matter on Thursday and decided that due to outbreak of the second wave of Covid-19 in the country, it would not be appropriate to hold biennial election to the Legislative Councils of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana respectively till the pandemic situation significantly Improves and conditions become conducive to hold these biennial elections.
“The Commission will take a decision in the matter at appropriate time in the future after taking inputs from the concerned states and assessing the pandemic situation from mandated authorities like NDMA/SDMA,” the EC official note said.
