The Election Commission on Tuesday announced polls to Legislative Council seats from Local Authorities constituencies in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra on December 10.
The biennial elections would be held for 11 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council seats from eight Local Authorities Constituencies, 12 seats of the Telangana Legislative Council from nine constituencies, 25 seats of the Karnataka Legislative Council from 20 constituencies and six Maharashtra Legislative Council seats from five constituencies.
The terms of the sitting members have either already come to an end or are scheduled to in January and February. Results would be announced on December 14, according to the schedule.
With regard to local authorities' constituencies election, the commission has laid down the guidelines that if at least 75% of the local authorities in a local authorities' constituency are functioning, and in addition at least 75% of the electors out of the total electorate of the constituency are available, then electorate is treated as available for electing representatives to the legislative council, it said.
According to the information received from the chief electoral officer (CEO) of Maharashtra, the existence of constituent local body functioning is more than 75% in five out of the seven local authorities' constituencies, the Election Commission (EC) said.
The commission has decided to hold biennial elections to the Maharashtra Legislative Council from five local authorities' constituencies for six seats, including two of Mumbai.
In another statement, the EC said the term of office of the 25 sitting members of the Karnataka Legislative Council from 20 local authorities' constituencies is going to expire on January 5 next year.
Now, the commission has decided to hold biennial elections to Karnataka Legislative Council from the above-mentioned 20 local authorities' constituencies, it said.
The election process has to be completed by December 16.
Broad guidelines of COVID-19 as already issued by EC as well as the recent guidelines issued by it would be followed, wherever applicable, during the entire election process for all persons.
The Model Code of Conduct concerning the said elections will come into force with immediate effect in the concerned Constituency, the EC said.
The chief secretaries of the states have also been directed to depute a senior officer to ensure that the extant instructions regarding COVID-19 containment measures are complied with while making arrangements for conducting the elections, it said.
(With inputs from PTI)
