Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh bypoll dates: CEO to meet CEC

HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer I. V. Subba Rao will leave for New Delhi on Thursday to brief Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswamy about the preparedness of the election machinery in the State to conduct bypolls to 18 Assembly and four Lok Sabha seats.

Speaking to The Hindu here on Tuesday, Mr. Subba Rao said the machinery was “is in full preparedness” to conduct the byelections as and when they are ordered by the Election Commission. However, he hastened to add that there was no indication as yet from the Nirvachan Sadan in New Delhi whether the byelections would be held in the month of May to coincide with the Karnataka Assembly elections as widely believed in political circles here.

The CEO is expected to discuss with the Election Commission on the measures that need to be initiated before it announces the date of notification and also to provide feedback on the law and order problems likely to be encountered in what are being considered as ‘mini-general’ elections. Sixteen out of the 18 Assembly seats and the four Lok Sabha seats fell vacant following resignation en masse by the sitting members of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti recently over the issue of their demand for forming a Telangana state. The vacancies of the rest of the two Assembly seats were caused by deaths of the sitting members — P. Janardhan Reddy of Congress (Khairatabad) and T. Jayaprakash of Telugu Desam (Therlam).

Meanwhile, work relating to preparation of photo-electoral rolls, containing photo of the voter against his/her name, reached a crucial stage. An election official said the photo-electoral rolls would cover all the 5.45 crore voters in the State.

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