Contest for Andhra Legislative Council elections unlikely

There is unlikely to be any contest in the offing for the March 21 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council elections as only ten nominations were received to fill as many seats, on the last day today.
With only ten nominations received till the stipulated timing at 3 PM, the stage is set for five candidates of ruling Congress, three of main opposition TDP and one each from YSR Congress Party and TRS to cruise smoothly in the Upper House without sweating it out as being expected, sources said.
These candidates are likely to be declared elected after the scrutiny of nominations received and after the last date of withdrawal, they said.

Five nominees of Congress who filed nominations are AICC Secretary P Sudhakar Reddy, ex-minister Mohd Ali Shabbir, ex-MLA K Veerabhadraswamy, party leader Santosh Kumar and sitting MLC P Lakshmi Siva Kumari.
Three TDP candidates are former Assembly Speaker Y Ramakrishnudu, former minister P Shamantakamani and minority leader Mohd Saleem.
TRS and YSRCP have fielded Mehmood Ali and A Apparao, respectively.

Speculations were rife over Congress fielding its sixth candidate as doing so would have left the ruling party with more votes after ensuring the victory of its five candidates.
However, the party did not field the sixth candidate thus brightening up the chances of TRS and YSRCP candidates as both the parties are lacking enough strength to pull off victory of their nominees.

The vacancies arose as the term of 10 MLCs, elected by the MLAs, is expiring on March 29.
Congress has 155 MLAs in the 294-member House, while Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP's actual strength is 77.
The TDP has sought the support of All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), which has seven members in the aftermath of the party severing its ties with Congress, and that of CPI (4), CPI(M) (1) and Lok Satta (1) to see its candidates through.
YSRCP and TRS have 17 MLAs each.