Vijayawada: Eight candidates are contesting for seven MLC seats in MLAs quota in Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, seven MLCs under the MLAs quota election is scheduled to be held on March 23^rd.

YSRCP fielded seven candidates for seven vacancies and TDP fielded one candidate in the poll fray.  Out of the total MLAs strength of 175, the YSRCP has 151, TDP 23 and Jana Sena with an MLA. Apart from the 151 MLAs elected from the YSRCP, the ruling party also has the support of four TDP MLAs and the lone Jana Sena MLA taking the total to 156.

The two dissident YSRCP MLAs Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy and Anam Ramanarayana Reddy are likely to extend their support to the TDP nominee. Against such a backdrop, the strength of the YSRC will be 154 along with the five MLAs from other parties supporting it. It is learnt that a total of 22 MLAs votes are required to elect each MLA and in the given scenario it is likely to be a cakewalk for all the seven nominees of the YSRC if all the votes cast by MLAs are valid.

The YSRC divided its MLAs into seven groups (22 in each group) and the MLAs in each group cast their vote for the candidate endorsed by the party.