As many as 48 candidates filed their nominations on Monday for Telangana assembly elections on December 7. On the first day of filing of nominations, candidates in 38 constituencies submitted their papers to the returning officers.
The Election Commission on Monday had issued notification for elections to the 119-member assembly. November 19 is the last date for filing of nominations. The papers will be scrutinised the next day, while nominations can be withdrawn till November 22.
TRS filed 10 nominations, followed by 9 nominations from the BJP. The Congress filed 6 nominations while TDP filed 2 and the CPI(M) filed one. The rest of the nominations were spread among smaller, lesser known parties.
Prominent among those who filed their nominations on the first day include state BJP chief K. Laxman, who is seeking re-election from Musheerabad constituency in Hyderabad. Controversial BJP legislator T. Raja Singh also filed his papers from Goshamahal.
N. Srinivas Reddy, a rebel candidate of ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), filed his nomination from Uppal. The party has named Bethi Subhash Reddy as its candidate.
Telangana's Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar at a press conference said polling in 13 constituencies will be held from 7 am to 4 pm, while in the remaining constituencies polling will continue till 5 p.m. He told reporters that as on Monday, the total number of voters were 2,76,29,610, including 1,36,91,290 women.
The total number of polling stations is 32,574, including 20,329 stations in rural areas.
The CEO said so far that Rs 66.96 crore cash, Rs.5.98 crore worth of liquor and Rs 4.30 crore worth of goods have been seized across the state.
Rajat Kumar said the accounts of the election expenditure of candidates would be maintained from Monday onwards. He asked the political parties to name their star campaigners within a week, failing which the expenditure will be accounted against the candidate concerned.
