28,506 nominations filed for Telangana municipal elections

Hyderabad, Jan 12: Candidates from several parties filed as many as 28,506 nominations till Saturday midnight for the municipal elections. Nearly 5,000 nominations were filed on the last day.

Withdrawal of nominations will end by 3pm on Tuesday. Candidates can appeal on rejections on Sunday, and officials will take a call a day later. The Election Commission (EC) will release the final list at 5 pm along with allocated election symbols.

Meanwhile, in the first results that have emerged TRS candidates Shanthi in Wanaparthy 5th ward and Gaikwad Rukmini in Banswada 4th ward have been declared elected unanimously. Nomination papers of the Congress candidate were rejected in Wanaparthy 5th ward, while three more candidates withdrew their nominations in support of the TRS candidate. Congress candidate Gaini Swapna withdrew her nomination in Banswada 4th ward.

The Election Commission has convened a video conference review meeting to discuss poll arrangements with District Collectors on Monday. Election code implementation, flying squads, monitoring of poll expenditure, printing of ballot papers, voters list, setting up of polling booths, among other things will be on the agenda. Telangana Election Commissioner V Nagi Reddy will review the situation with district Collectors.

Meanwhile, the ruling party is facing rebel-heat in the municipal elections. TRS working president KT Rama Rao has already initiated the process of convincing the rebels. After his two-day Delhi tour, KTR has been busy with municipal elections from Friday night. He interacted with MLAs, MLCs, MPs and ministers at Telangana Bhavan on Saturday and reviewed the situation at the ground level.

KTR enquired about the reasons that led to nominations from rebel candidates and directed Ministers and MLAs to ensure that all the rebel candidates withdraw their nominations and support the official party candidates. As a face-saving gesture, KTR assured appropriate nominated positions to the rebel candidates if they withdrew from the fray. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t even see the faces of rebel candidates,” warned KTR, who is keen on giving B forms to winning horses.