The State election authority has ruled out the scope for allowing the members of ZPTCs and MPTCs, who would be elected after the completion of the ongoing election process on May 27, to cast their vote in the elections to three local authorities constituencies of the Legislative Council that are going to polls on May 31.

The development assumes significance as the opposition Congress has upped the ante demanding that the elected local bodies’ representatives be allowed to cast their vote in the upcoming election. A delegation of the Congress leaders called on Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora in New Delhi on Wednesday complaining that the State election authority was toeing the line of the ruling TRS and was denying the to-be elected local bodies’ representatives their right to exercise their franchise.

Senior officials are, however, firm that the rules governing the election process would not allow the newly-elected representatives to cast their vote. According to them, the election for Ranga Reddy LAC should be completed in all respects, including handing over of the certificate of the election to the winning candidate, before June 10.

This was because the sitting member, Patnam Narender Reddy, resigned from the post on December 11 and the seat cannot be kept vacant for more than six months. The sitting MLCs of other two seats, Nalgonda and Warangal, K. Rajagopal Reddy and Konda Muralidhar Rao, tendered their resignation on December 17 and 22 respectively, necessitating the completion of the election process for the two seats before June 16 and June 21 respectively.

“The tenure of the sitting MPTCs and ZPTCs is coming to an end in the first week of July. Though the results of the ZPTC and MPTC elections will be announced on May 27, the new bodies will be put in place only after the completion of the tenure of the sitting members,” a senior official told The Hindu.

The Election Commission considered all aspects of the Telangana State Election Commission’s request for permitting it to conduct the elections to local bodies any time between April 15 and May 20. As everything is readily available, it permitted the conduct of the elections to three LACs with a mandate that the results would not be declared till the results of the Lok Sabha elections are announced on May 23.

“The Commission has also factored in the election code which is operational for the past eight months in the State and has decided to club the elections of the three LACs to ensure that the operation of the code comes to an end at least by June first week,” the official explained.