Hyderabad: For the by-election to Huzurnagar assembly seat in Telangana’s Nalgonda district, as many as 76 candidates filed their nominations as the last date for filing of papers drew to a close on Monday.
Apart from the contestants from mainstream political parties like the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party, Telugu Desam Party and Communist Party of India (Marxist), a large number of independents filed their papers for the by-poll to Huzurnagar.
The huge number of independents filing their nominations in Huzurnagar comes close on the heels of the April 11 elections to Nizamabad parliamentary seat for which as many as 185 candidates were in the fray.
A majority of the independents in Nizamabad were turmeric and red jowar farmers who were demanding remunerative prices for their crops. Their contest led to the defeat of TRS president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha by BJP candidate D Arvind.
In Huzurnagar, it is the turn of sarpanches of various villages from across the state to contest the by-election in protest against denial of exclusive power to them in the gram panchayats by the TRS government.
Initially, more than 100 sarpanches were planning to file their nominations, but many of them backed out under pressure, a member of Telangana sarpanches’ association said, pleading anonymity.
The by-election to Huzurnagar was necessitated with the resignation of Pradesh Congress Committee president N Uttam Kumar Reddy on his election to the Lok Sabha from the Nalgonda parliamentary constituency in May.
The by-election is slated to be held on October 21.
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