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Hyderabad, October 24 (IANS) A total of 58 candidates are left in the fray for the by-election to be held on November 11 in Jubilee Hills assembly constituency.
Election officials said 23 candidates withdrew their nominations during the last two days, leaving 58 candidates in the fray.
The deadline for withdrawal of nominations ended on Friday.
211 candidates had filed their nominations for the by-election. Nominations of 130 candidates were rejected while the documents of 81 candidates were found to be correct.
The nominations of the main contestants were accepted. The by-election is likely to be a triangular contest between the ruling Congress, the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
BRS leader Maganti Gopinath, who had won the Jubilee Hills seat for the third consecutive time in 2023, died in June, necessitating the by-election. BRS has fielded his wife Maganti Sunita.
Congress party has given ticket to Naveen Yadav, while BJP has once again fielded Lankala Deepak Reddy.
Gopinath won the 2023 elections by defeating former Indian cricket captain and Congress candidate Mohammad Azharuddin by 16,337 votes.
In the multi-cornered contest, Gopinath got 80,549 votes, while Azharuddin got 64,212 votes. BJP’s Deepak Reddy stood third with 25,866 votes.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), whose candidate had finished fourth in the 2023 elections, is not contesting the elections this time. The party led by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi has announced its support to the Congress candidate.
Meanwhile, Hyderabad District Election Officer RV Karnan announced the final voter list on Friday. There are a total of 4,01,365 voters in the constituency. These include 2,08,561 men and 1,92,779 women. He said that 2,383 new voters were enrolled after the election notification was issued.
He said since 58 candidates are in the fray, four ballot units and one VVPAT will be used at each polling station.
The election official said the officials concerned have so far seized Rs 2.84 crore in cash and 512 liters of liquor worth Rs 3.69 lakh.
–IANS
MS/PGH