Highest number of contestants from LB Nagar at 48; KCR home turf comes second

Hyderabad: The LB Nagar constituency in Hyderabad has 48 MLA candidates contesting the Telangana Assembly Elections which is the highest number in the state. Followed by LB Nagar is chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s constituency Gajwel which has the second highest number of contesting candidates at 44. A total of 2290 candidates are to contest for the 119 Assembly constituencies of Telangana. There are a total of 608 candidates who withdrew their nomination on the last day of elections.

The third highest contesting candidates come from Munugode and Kamareddy with 39 candidates in the fray. The other constituencies with a high number of contesting candidates are Palair at 37, Nampally and Kodad at 34, Malkajgiri at 33, Uppal at 32, Kothagudem at 30, Nalgonda, Serilingampally and Musheerabad at 31, Warangal East at 29, Sangareddy at 28, Adilabad at 25, Karimnagar at 27 and Secunderabad, Kalwakurthy and Huzurnagar at 24 candidates.

Why so many contestants?

The number of candidates in the constituencies indicates that there will be a major division of votes. A senior Congress leader alleges that multiple candidates have been fielded by the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) to divide the votes.

He says, “The attempt is at micro-management where a division of votes will be in numbers of four to 10.” Does that apply to Gajwel too? Has the Opposition also used the same strategy to defeat CM KCR?

Withdrawals

Interestingly, Gajwel has the highest number of accepted contestants at 114 along with the highest number of withdrawals at 70.

The number of people who gave up the fight is being seen as either being persuaded or those who were asked not to contest, explained sources. Medchal has the second highest with 45 withdrawals. Congress party is said to have asked 12 rebels to withdraw of which 10 withdrew their nominations. The two rebels who have refused to withdraw are from the Adilabad (Sanjiva Reddy) and Banswada (Bala Raju) constituency. Patel Ramesh Reddy from Suryapet withdrew his nomination after a major emotional outburst by him and his family members.

The angry candidates filed nominations as they were expecting a ticket but when the Congress party did not give them the ticket they withdrew their nominations. Most of them have now come to terms and agreed to work with the party, stated senior Congress officials who went to meet them. Congress vice-president Mallu Ravi along with other All India Congress Committee members was a part of the discussion.

Not willing to give up

Zero withdrawals were seen in Pargi, Vicarabad (SC), Malakpet, Amberpet, Nampally, Charminar, Yakutpura, Bahadurpura, Narayanpet, Gadwal, Devarakonda (ST) and Bhadrachalam (ST).

Old City set for a tough fight

The contesting candidates in Old City are in good numbers with Nampally seeing the highest at 34, Malakpet at 27, Amberpet at 20, Charminar at 14, Yakutpura at 27 and at Bahadurpura 12. The division of votes in Old City is being seen as an attempt to ensure that the Opposition does not get votes.

“Congress party is trying very hard to get a foothold in Old City. Despite their efforts and the work carried out by the cadre, there is a failure in the distribution of tickets. Many of the people who were looking up to the Congress are dejected by the choice of candidates,” explained a businessman near Nampally.

Telangana elections are scheduled for November 30 and the counting of votes will be on December 3.

Box

Total number of candidates: 2,290

Total number of withdrawals: 608

Highest number of candidates: LB Nagar at 48, Gajwel at 44

Highest number of withdrawals: Gajwel at 70, Medchal at 45