AP minister resigns as legislative council member

Andhra Pradesh Agriculture minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy Friday resigned as member of the State Legislative Council in tune with the Telugu Desam Party's latest policy stipulating that those seeking to contest polls should not hold any nominated posts, TDP sources said.

He submitted his resignation to the Council Secretary (in charge) Satyanarayana Rao in the evening.

Somireddy was nominated to the Council in June 2015 under the Governors quota and his tenure is till 2021.

He will, however, continue as a member of the Council of Ministers.

Somireddy is seeking to contest the coming elections from Sarvepalli Assembly constituency in SPS Nellore district, a seat he had represented from 1994 to 1999.

He did not win a single election after that.

"As I am seeking to contest the ensuing Assembly election, I thought it's not proper for me to continue as MLC. I told Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu about this.

I am hopeful people of Sarvepalli will bless me," the minister told reporters after submitting his resignation.

The Chief Ministers son Nara Lokesh, who is the minister for Panchayat Raj and Information Technology, also expressed interest to contest the coming elections but said the party high command would take a final decision on that.

As he is also a member of the Legislative Council, Lokesh will have to resign from his post in accordance with the party policy if he wants to contest the Assembly elections.

Lokesh was elected to the Council under the MLAs quota in March 2017 and made a minister within days in April.