Andhra CM's son elected unopposed to legislature

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu's son Nara Lokesh was among the seven candidates who were elected unopposed to the state legislative council on Friday.

Lokesh, who is likely to be inducted in the state cabinet, and four other candidates of the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and both candidates of the lone opposition YSR Congress Party were declared elected unopposed from the MLAs' quota.

Lokesh is the general secretary of TDP. The 34-year-old is a graduate from Stanford and is a director in Heritage Foods, a company owned by the family.

The election was for members of the legislative assembly to fill seven vacancies in the upper house of the state legislature, As only seven nominations were filed, the legislature secretary, who is the returning officer, declared them elected unopposed.

This was announced after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations. The other TDP candidates elected without a contest were former state minister D. Manikya Varaprasad, Karnam Balramkrishna Murthy, P. Sunita and B. Arjunudu.

Alla Srinivas and Gangula Prabhakar Reddy of YSR Congress were also elected to the upper house.

Meanwhile, in Telangana all three candidates of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) were elected unopposed to the state legislative council. M. Hanumantha Rao, E. Krishna Reddy and V. Gangadhar Goud were elected from the MLAs' quota.

Theirs were the only nominations received for the three seats, which fell vacant following the retirement of sitting members.

--IANS

ms/ruwa/bg