N Kiran Kumar Reddy meets Sonia to finalise candidates for Council elections

NEW DELHI: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy met Congress President Sonia Gandhi to discuss the party candidates for the March 21 polls for 10 MLC seats in the state.

PCC chief Botsa Satyanarayana and AICC general secretary in-charge for Andhra Pradesh Ghulam Nabi Azad were also present in the meeting at Gandhi's residence 10 Janpath here, where the issue was discussed in detail.

Monday is the last day for filing nominations. As per the election notification, the nominations would be received till March 11 and the last date for withdrawal is March 14 Polling, if necessary, will take place on March 21 and the results declared the same evening.

These 10 MLC seats, which fall vacant this month end, are from the MLA quota. The state assembly has a strength of 294.

Sources said that around 29 votes are required for winning one seat and in the volatile political situation, while Congress is likely to win five seats, it could field a candidate even for the sixth seat, which could create a problem for both TDP and TRS.

The Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha and the PCC President had reached Delhi on Friday to finalise the candidate and held meetings with senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel and others.

They are learnt to have submitted the list of shortlisted candidates to the Congress President.

Former PCC chief D Srinivas is also in the national capital.