Telangana Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shashank Goel on Saturday said that as many as 19 people have withdrawn their candidature for the forthcoming Nagarjunasagar Assembly bye-poll. The bye-election in Nagarjunasagar was necessitated following the death of sitting TRS MLA Nomula Narsimhaiah, who died due to ill-health in December last year. The TRS has given a ticket to his son Nomula Bhagat to contest the bye-polls.
Speaking about the withdrawal of nominations, Goel said, "The returning officer has reported that the following validly nominated candidates have withdrawn their candidature." Further, Goel listed out the names of the candidates.
The candidates who withdrew their candidature include Godavarti Janakiram, Mudigondla Venkataiah, Ravulapati Ravi Shankar, Bandaru Nagaraju, Rekala Saidulu, Maram Venkat Reddy, Pettam Mallikarjun, Jannu Bharath and Dhudapaka Sanjeeva. Others include Thandu Upender, Gangireddy Kotireddy, Eesam Nagarjun, Dodla Venkatesham, Kolkur Pratap, Pidishetti Raju, Varikolu Srinivas, Mohammed Abdul Saleem, Vummadi Venkat Reddy, and Naresh Patti.
Scheduled on April 17, candidates of major political parties have already filed their nomination for the Nagarjunsagar by-poll.
Ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) candidate Nomula Bagat Kumar, opposition Congress party's veteran leader and former minister K. Jana Reddy and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominee P. Ravi Kumar filed their papers for the by-poll.
There has been a high voltage campaign for the upcoming Nagarjuna Sagar bye-polls and all the major parties are giving a tough fight for the seat. And in a recent development, Kadari Anjaiah Yadav, a BJP leader from Nagarjuna Sagar, joined the ruling TRS last week.
As reported earlier by TNM, the bye-polls are also crucial for the BJP as it aims to emerge as the alternative to TRS in the state. BJP had won the Dubbaka Assembly bye-election and made significant gains in the Hyderabad civic elections. The scrutiny of nominations would be taken up on Wednesday. Votes would be counted on May 2.
With IANS inputs