Telangana LS polls: Over 700 candidates file nominations for 17 MP seats
Over 700 candidates have filed their nominations for April 11 elections to all 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana as the deadline for filing of nominations ended Monday.
The candidates included more than 200 farmers who filed their papers for the Nizamabad seat as Independents. This is where Chief Minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao's daughter K Kavitha is seeking re-election.
A majority of them submitted their papers on the last day. They entered the fray to highlight their problems, demanding a Minimum Support Price (MSP) for turmeric.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Rajat Kumar said 245 nominations were received in Nizamabad. If the number of candidates exceeds 90, ballot papers will be used for the polling. He denied that any rules were violated in receiving the nominations from farmers.
The candidates who filed their nominations include Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief Uttam Kumar Reddy in Nalgonda, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi for Hyderabad and former Union minister and Congress leader Renuka Chowdhary for Khammam. Leaders like Revanth Reddy from the Congress and D K Aruna, who recently joined the BJP, are also in the fray.
The scrutiny of nominations will be taken up on March 26 while the last date for withdrawal of nominations is March 28. Polling will be held on April 11 while the counting will take place on May 23.
The CEO said that the total number of voters in the state as per the final rolls stood at 2,96,97,269 including 1,49,19,751 men, 1,47,76,024 women and 1,504 others. The authorities have so far seized Rs 10.09 crore cash, liquor worth Rs 2.04 crore and drugs worth Rs 2.45 crore.
The TRS, led by KCR, is riding on the success of its recent win in the Legislative Assembly election in December last year, where they won 88 out of the 119 seats up for grabs, and hopes to continue its winning streak. Meanwhile, the Congress hopes to bounce back
IANS inputs