Hyderabad: Five vacancies in the Telangana Legislative Council was filled yesterday by four candidates of the ruling TRS and one nominee of AIMIM after they won the election.
The TRS nominees were Mohd Mehmood Ali, Seri Subhash Reddy, Satyawati Rathod and Yegge Mallesam, and AIMIM candidate Mirza Riyaz ul Hasan Effendi.
98 votes were pulled in the 120 member House, in which Mehmood Ali, Subhash Reddy and Rathod got 20 votes each. Mallesam and Effendi obtained 19 each. The 22 absentee members included Congress (19), TDP (2) and BJP (1).
Following the decision of four Congress MLAs and a TDP MLA to switch over to the ruling TRS, the Council election was held and it generated political heat. Congress fielded a nominee banking on the support of its 19 MLAs and the two TDP members. But the strength came down to 15 from 19 following the decision of the four MLAs to join TRS. The TDP’s strenght got reduced to one after the other MLA decided to move to TRS.
The election was however boycotted by the main opposition Congress as it blamed that TRS had adopted unconstitutional and unethical means to encourage its MLAs to jump ship. Following this, TDP has also announced that it would not participate in the election.
In the Assembly elections held on 7 December 2018, TRS had won 88 MLAs. An independent MLA and an AIFB legislator had declared support to the ruling party. The ruling party’s ally Asadudin Owaisi-led AIMIM now has seven MLAs.