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Hundreds of candidates filed their nomination papers in ten districts of the Telangana region on Wednesday as today was considered as an auspicious day besides being the last day for filing the papers.
Elections to 17 Lok Sabha and 119 Assembly constituencies in Telangana will be held on April 30. Returning officers will announce the valid nominations after scrutinising the papers on Thursday.
Several important leaders from various political parties, including Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K Chandrasekhara Rao (KCR) and Bharatiya Janata Party president G Kishan Reddy, filed their nomination papers amid much fanfare in their respective districts. Among other high-profile candidates were former DGP V Dinesh Reddy as the YSR Congress nominee for the Malkajgiri Lok Sabha constituency.
KCR filed his nomination papers for Medak Lok Sabha and Gajwel Assembly constituencies in his home district keeping different post-poll scenarios in mind. His daughter and son are also in the fray.
Till yesterday 143 candidates for Lok Sabha and 1,103 candidates for Assembly segments had filed nominations while this number is expected to go up steeply when today’s number is added. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), a political non-entity in AP, fielded 10 candidates for Lok Sabha and 68 candidates for the Assembly seats till yesterday.
Faced with challenges like stiff competition for party tickets from within and the threat of last minute desertions and poaching of people who failed to get tickets made the Telugu Desam, BJP and the TRS release their lists in small tranches till the last day of nominations.
Barring minor hiccups, the Congress was way ahead of other parties in announcing the candidates though the headquarters of all the political parties faced the heat of leaders, who failed to secure tickets.
Except the TDP-BJP combine, all other major parties preferred to go alone in this time. As parties like the TRS and the Congress, whose tickets are the most-sought after in Telangana preferred to contest separately, most of the leaders were accommodated thereby reducing the trouble for the leadership of these parties, according to political observers.
However, there were instances of leaders changing party loyalties for the sake of tickets and most of them could get tickets in the TRS, BJP besides the YSR Congress, which was able to field its candidates in only 88 Assembly segments and in 13 Lok Sabha constituencies.
In a last minute surprise, Mynampally Hanmantha Rao, a TDP strongman and a bitter critic of KCR hailing from the same district, was given TRS ticket for the high-profile Malkajgiri Lok Sabha constituency within hours of quitting his party for being denied the ticket.
Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh chief electoral officer Bhanvarlal said so far Rs 90 crore cash, 70 kilograms of gold and 289 kilograms of silver ornaments were sized.
The amount is several times higher as compared with the seizure of over Rs 37 crore cash in the 2009 elections.
The 13 districts of Seemandhra are going to polls on May 7, the last phase of the elections for which the notification would be issued on April 12, according to him.
