Hyderabad: More voters pressed the button for Nota in the December 7 elections than voted for all independent candidates put together. There were at least three independents from every constituency, with the number going up to 18 in Malkajgiri.
Unlike in Gujarat, only two independents won in Telangana elections and both have reportedly agreed to join the TRS.
Contesting on a non-partisan basis is deemed a waste because a candidate is expected to spend up to Rs 10 lakh on publicity, electioneering and other expenses. Political parties do not like them because they away votes of the main candidates and weaken them in unexpected ways.
The December 7 elections featured 675 independents. There were those from entities called New India Party, Jai Swaraj Party, Samajwadi Forward Bloc, Nava Prajarajyam Party, Telangana Labour Party, Anarakshit Samaj Party.
Among those who contested from Hyderabad were Infosys employee Ravinder Uppula who secured 370 votes in Serilingampally. Activist Lubna Sarwath from Karwan got 155 votes, Marri Aditya Reddy, son of former Sanathnagar MLA Marri Shashidhar Reddy, 651 at Tandur.
Mr Amit Shan, a political analyst, said, “Many candidates fight for ulterior purposes like cutting the votes of other candidates of the same caste, religion and gender, etc., or by having similar sounding names. They do it for publicity, for or against some candidate. Another prime reason is to increase the expenditure allowance for some candidate.”
He said some independents turn famous overnight, or join the fray to express their frustration. A few rebel candidates opt to stand independently,
“Only very few win the election. An independent candidate faces many difficulties in convincing his voters about his claims of good work,” said Mr Girish Sinha, political analysis.
Sources told this newspaper that rival parties position a number of independent candidates in constituencies where bigwigs contest. This is done to steal crucial votes.
The number of votes scored by Independents share by independents in Jubilee Hills constituency and Nota was high and this affected the prominent contenders.
In most of the elections, it has been seen that candidates who win on as independents largely gravitate towards the ruling party and eventually join it.
