Here is another election in Andhra Pradesh. Election Commission of India has announced notification for Rajya Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh. Six seats are falling vacant with end of the term of the existing members from Andhra Pradesh. These are K. Kesava Rao, Sanjeeva Reddy, Dasari Narayana Rao, Rasheed Alvi, MV Mysoora Reddy and Aziz Pasha. Out of these 4 members are from the ruling Congress Party and one each from TDP and CPI. The nominations for Rajya Sabha biennial elections will be received from 19th March 2012. Elections will be held on 30th March 2012. Counting of votes and declaration of results also will be announced on the same day. AP is witnessing bye elections in 2012 regularly due to resignations, defections and other reasons.
Out of the six seats, it is widely believed that Chiranjeevi is likely to be nominated to Rajya Sabha in order to induct him into the Central Cabinet. CPI is going to lose it’s membership due to lack of numbers and support from other parties. The Congress will retain three seats and the TDP is likely to get 2 seats as it’s MLAs tally increased in the last elections. While Kesavarao is trying for another term, Renuka Chowdary and industrialist GV Krishna Reddy are lobbying for Rajya Sabha berth from Andhra Pradesh. After these, bye elections to the 17 Assembly constituencies (including disqualified and supporters of YS Jagan) is likely to be held during July – August 2012.
There are a total of 58 new members are going to be elected across the country. Apart from AP, tenure of several members from Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha and Rajasthan is also expiring in the month of April. Elections to all these seats will be held on 30th March 2012. Prominent leaders seeking re-election are Arun Jaitly, Rashid Alvi, Ravishankar Prasad, Hema Malini, Vinay Katiyar, Kalraj Mishra, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Rajeev Shukla, Mukul Roy, Naresh Chandra Agarwal etc.