Biennial Election to Elect 5 Members to the AP Legislative Council by MLA

The term of office of 4 members of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council, elected by the members of the Legislative Assembly is expiring on their retirement on 29th March, 2015. Details of the vacancies are given as under:-

As per Section 23 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014, the number of seats in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council to be filled through election by the Members of the Legislative Assembly has been being fixed as 17, but under Fourth Schedule read with Section 22(2) of the said Act, the number of Members in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council elected by the members of Legislative Assembly have been allocated as 16, i.e. one short. In terms of Section 108 of the said Act, this inconsistency was referred to the Central Government (Ministry of Home Affairs) for removing the said inconsistency. The Ministry of Home Affairs has advised that the said vacant seat may be filled up now. That is to say, election may be held to fill five (5) vacancies instead of the aforesaid four (4) vacancies.

The Commission has decided to hold Biennial Election to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council by the Members of Legislative Assembly to fill up the above mentioned 5 vacancies so arising, in accordance with the following programme:-

It may be stated that 07 members of the Legislative Council of Teangana, elected by the Members of the Legislative Assembly, are also retiring on 29th March, 2015. However, it may be pointed out that there is inconsistency in the number of seats fixed for this category of seats under Section 23 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014, i.e. 14, and the number of members allocated under the Fourth Schedule of the Act, i.e. 15; that is to say one extra member. In view of this, matter was referred to the Central Government (Ministry of Home Affairs), under Section 108 of the Act to remove the inconsistency. The response from the Central Government is still awaited. Once the matter is resolved by the Central Government, action will be taken by the Commission for the filling up of these seats in accordance with the law.

Similarly, 03 and 08 members of the Legislative Councils of both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana respectively elected by the members of the Local Authorities’ Constituencies of the respective States are also retiring on 29th March, 2015 and 1st May, 2015 on the completion of their term. In addition to these, 08 seats in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council and 01 seat in the Telangana Legislative Council, of members elected by the members of the Local Authorities’ Constituencies of the respective States are lying vacant on the retirement of the members during 2013 as elections could not be held to fill up these seats in time because the Local Authorities were not in existence at the relevant time. Now the Local Authorities are in existence and elections have to be held to fill up these seats also. However, as there are inconsistencies in the AP Reorganization Act, 2014 pertaining to the number of seats fixed under Section 23 of the Act and the number of seats allocated under Third Schedule of the Act. for this category of seats, the matter was referred to the Central Government (Ministry of Home Affairs) for removal of the inconsistencies. The response from the Central Government is still awaited. As soon as the inconsistency is resolved by the Central Government, action will be taken by the Commission to fill up these seats, in accordance with the law.