AMARAVATI: The by-election for the lone vacancy in the state legislative council will be held on March 24.
The by-election was necessitated following the death of YSRC MLC, Shaik Karimunnisa of Vijayawada. The Election Commission on Monday released the schedule to conduct the bypoll. The EC will release the election notification on March 7. The last date for filing of nominations is March 14. While scrutiny of nominations will be taken up on March 15, the last date for withdrawal of nominations is March 17. Polling will be held on March 24 and the counting of votes will be taken up immediately after the commencement of polling.
The YSRC is expected to win the seat uncontested as it has a majority in the legislative assembly. Although there were speculations that chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had promised to nominate Karimunnisa's son Ruhulla, the YSRC reportedly had second thoughts over giving the berth to Ruhulla following complaints from party leaders in Vijayawada.
Speculation is also rife that the YSRC might nominate film actor Ali as a party candidate for the MLC by-election and grant a state-level corporation post to Ruhulla as compensation. The actor met the chief minister at the latter's camp office last week and later told the media that the chief minister had said the party would share some good news with him within a week. "I am not aware of what the CM wanted to give me. The CM said the party will make a formal announcement with regard to the good news very shortly," said Ali. Ali, a native of Rajahmundry, joined the YSRC just before the last elections and campaigned in some constituencies.
Initially, it was speculated that Ali's name was under consideration for a Rajya Sabha berth.
