Andhra Pradesh:
The announcement of the schedule for by-elections to seven assembly seats has
come as a relief for A.P ruling Congress as it will now not be facing polls in
24 constituencies in one going as being demanded by the YSR Congress party.
With the assembly speaker yet to take a decision on the
disqualification of 17 Congress rebels, the Election Commission decided to go
ahead with the polls for 7 other seats which fell vacant last year due to
resignations of six members. The seventh vacancy was caused by the death of an
independent legislator.
By announcing the schedule for 7 seats, the Election
Commission has ignored the demand of the YSR Congress to conduct coincidental polls
for 24 seats.
Six of the seven seats going to polls on March 18th are in
Telangana and as the sentiments for separate state are still strong, the
Congress wanted to avoid facing simultaneous elections in other constituencies.
YSR Congress legislators, in a letter to the Election
Commission on Feb 13th, had urged it to hold polls for all 24 seats
in one go. They alleged that the Congress was afraid of facing the electorate
and hence was pressurizing the speaker to go slow on their disqualification.
The Congress had sought disqualification of the rebels after
they violated the party whip and voted in favour of the no-confidence motion
moved by opposition TDP in the assembly in December.
YSR Congress leader YS Jagan had challenged the Congress to
face by-elections for all 24 seats. The rebels had also met the speaker, advocating
him to disqualify them.
The ruling party leaders, however, denied that they were
afraid of facing the electorate. They arrogated that it was for the speaker to
decide on the disqualification of the rebels.
As per the poll schedule announced by the Election
Commission last night, polling would be held for seven seats on March 18th
. The vacancies arose due to resignations of two legislators of Congress party,
one of TDP, three rebels of TDP and the death of one independent MLA.
Two legislators each of Congress and TDP resigned to join
TRS. Senior TDP leader N. Janardhan Reddy resigned over the demand for separate
Telangana state. Another TDP rebel Prasanna Kumar Reddy quit his seat to join
YSR Congress party.