Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Qureshi informed on Monday that bypolls to the 18 Assembly and Nellore Lok Sabha segments in the state would be held before the Presidential Elections in June.
Talking to this correspondent from New Delhi, Mr Qureshi said, “We want to hold the bypolls to all the vacant seats before the Presidential elections, as we can’t deny the right to the new MLAs to vote in the Presidential elections.” This effectively translates to a May polling day.
He added that the Election Commission had received the communication from the Assembly Secretariat regarding the vacancies in the 17 Assembly segments. “I don’t know about the Tirupati segment as of now; we have also received communication from the Lok Sabha Secretariat regarding the vacancy for the Nellore Lok Sabha segment,” said Mr Qureshi. (Incidentally, Mr Chiranjeevi will be quitting his Tirupati Assembly seat on Tuesday following his election to the Rajya Sabha.) The full Commission will soon meet to take a decision on holding bypolls for all the existing vacancies, but the exact schedule is not certain yet, he added.