Hyderabad: All political parties, including the TRS, will have a big job on hand in the next few days to appease rebels to withdraw their nominations for the GHMC elections.
The deadline for filing nominations ended on Sunday and a total of 2,969 applications were received.
From the TRS alone, 698 candidates filed nominations hoping to get the party nod to contest from the 150 wards. In some divisions, seven to eight TRS leaders entered the fray.
The count was six each in Moula Ali and Gouthamnagar divisions, four each in Malkajgiri and Vinayaknagar.
The situation in the other parties was no different. As many as 506 Telugu Desam hopefuls filed nominations, 501 from the Congress and 308 from the BJP.
GHMC commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy stated that independents accounted for 683 of the total nominations.
With all political parties keeping their cards close to their chest, there was a heavy rush of candidates who flocked municipal offices to file their nomination papers. A total of 1,704 nominations were received on Sunday, the last day.
The TRS, which earlier announced candidates for 80 divisions, declared contestants for the remaining divisions on Sunday.
The names of seven divisions including Neredmet, Adikmet, Begum Bazar, Chilaka Nagar etc. were not publicly announced until the deadline concluded in the afternoon. However, shortlisted candidates were informed over phone.
The Congress released a fresh list of 49 candidates on Sunday, after nominating 45 others earlier.
The names of contestants in 54 divisions were not made public although they were informed in time to file nominations. This was done anticipating trouble from dissident groups.
Earlier in the day former MLAs D. Sudhir Reddy, Bhikshapathi Yadav, Kuna Srisailam Goud and a few others threatened to resign stating that the party top brass was ignoring their recommendations.
By evening they backed off and did not even take calls from the media.
Same family women locking horns at hustings
Hyderabad: Eyes are riveted to the Gunfoundry division in the GHMC, where two main women contenders locking horns in the civic polls are from the same family.
Ex-minister Moola Mukesh Goud’s daughter Shilpa is candidate of the Congress party there and facing her is her close relative Moola Saritha on a BJP ticket. Shilpa’s name came up at the last minute.
Saritha is wife of Mukesh Goud’s younger brother Madhu Goud who had represented the same division as a Congress corporator. He was also chairman of the GHMC standing committee.
The division was reserved for BC women this time, and choice fell on Madhu Goud’s wife for the BJP ticket.
Saritha told DC she was shocked when the Congress announced its candidature.
“My husband represented from both the Jambagh and Gunfoundry. This time, Mukesh’s son Vikram Goud is preparing for his political entry from Jambagh division. In view of this, my husband didn’t try from that division so as to avoid a competition in the same family,” she said.
Shilpa told DC that she would be the winner anyway. “My paternal uncle came up in the Congress party with the assistance of my father. Recently, he shifted to another party and started campaign against the Congress. This is not good.
The division is our stronghold and the Congress will win the seat,” she said.
