All set for Rajya Sabha polls on Friday

Hyderabad, Feb 5 : Stage is set for the election of six members for the Rajya Sabha by the members of Andhra Pradesh State Legislative Assembly.

AP Legislture Secretary S Raja Sadaram on Wednesday informed that the polling for Biennial Elections to the Council of States, 2014 (Rajya Sabha) will be held on Friday between 9 AM and 4 PM at the Committee Hall No.1 of the Assembly Buildings. The counting will commence from 5 PM on the same day.

There are seven candidates in the fray for the six seats going for the polls. While Congress party has fielded three candidates – KVP Ramchander Rao, MA Khan and T Subbarami Reddy, the TDP has fielded two candidates – Thota Seetarama Lakshmi and Garikapati Mohan Rao. Former PCC chief K Keshav Rao who quit the Congress on Telangana issue is contesting as TRS candidate. Congress MLA Adala Prabhakar Reddy necessitated the elections by entering the fray as an independent.

It is almost after 15 years that the elections are being held for the Rajya Sabha seats. It will be a major challenge for the Congress party to ensure the victory of all its candidates. Adala’s entry has changed the equations against the Congress party as he is contesting the elections on the Samaikhyandhra slogan. Another rebel candidate, KVV Satyanarayana Raju alias Chaitanya Raju, had withdrawn his candidature following the intervention of Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy.

Analysts say that the results might go against any one of the six official candidates if Adala was really enjoying the support of Seemandhra MLAs. In the 294-member Assembly has an effective strength of 279 which includes 160 MLAs from Seemandhra region.  INN