The strength of the Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh state legislative council, which was 32 when it lost power to YSR Congress party in 2019, will now come down to just four by July 2023.
The party, which has 16 MLCs as of now in the state legislative council, is all set to lose 12 seats to the ruling YSR Congress party in the elections to be held this year.
Several prominent leaders including TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh, Bachula Arjunudu, Manthena Satyanarayana Raju, Chikkala Ramachandra Rao, B Tech Ravi, K E Prabhakar, Angara Rammohan and G Deepak Reddy will be vacating their seats in the next few months.
The TDP will be left with only four MLCs – Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, P Ashok Babu, D Rama Rao and V Tirumal Naidu – in the legislative council and they, too, would be retiring by 2025.
On the other hand, the YSRCP has 32 MLCs in the 58-member state legislative council, is going to get another 17 MLCs in the elections and increase its tally to 49.
As many as 23 seats under various categories in the upper house are going to fall vacant in three phases this year due to completion of term of the sitting members and they would be replaced by new members.
Of them, 14 members would retire by March 29, seven by May 1 and two others by July 20. These vacancies would have been filled before the completion of their term.
Out of these 23 members, seven MLCs would have to be elected under the MLAs’s quota; nine MLAs under local bodies’ quota; three under graduates’ quota; two under teachers’ quota and two under the Governor’s quota.
Since the YSRCP has 151 elected MLAs in the state assembly, besides the support of four other defected TDP MLAs, all the seven MLCs of the ruling party would get elected unopposed to the upper house under the MLAs’ quota.
Similarly, the YSRCP can easily win nine MLC seats under the local bodies’ quota as well, as the party had won nearly 90 per cent of the seats in the local bodies in the elections held in 2021.
The two seats under the Governor’s quota, too, will be filled up only by the YSRCP candidates, as per the recommendation of the Jagan Mohan Reddy government.
For the MLC elections under graduates’ quota, Jagan has announced his party candidates well in advance – S Sudhakar for north-coastal Andhra and V Ravi for Rayalaseema and they have already stepped up their campaign.
For the teachers’ constituencies too, the YSRC is contemplating fielding its candidates.
So, the YSRC can capture all the 23 MLC seats given the overwhelming majority it has. This is the first time that any political party will have such a massive mandate.
When the YSRCP came to power in May 2019, it had just nine MLCs in the legislative council, while the TDP had 33 members.
The Jagan Mohan Reddy government had to face a tough task in getting certain legislations like the three capitals bill and the one on introduction of English medium in government schools passed in the council due to lack of majority.