Scrutiny of the papers is slated for Wednesday and the last date for withdrawal of nominations is Friday.
Hyderabad: The Jubilee Hills Assembly bypoll witnessed an unprecedented rush of nominations on Tuesday, with the total number of candidates expected to cross the 200-mark on the final day of filing. Hundreds of independent aspirants were still in queue at 10 pm on Tuesday, waiting at the returning officer’s office in Shaikpet to submit their papers, turning the nomination process into a protest platform to highlight a range of public grievances.
Scrutiny of the papers is slated for Wednesday and the last date for withdrawal of nominations is Friday. If the protest nominations are accepted, multiple EVMs will need to be deployed in November 11, the polling day. Each control unit can take 64 candidates across four EVMs.
Those who filed nominations included farmers affected by the Hyderabad Regional Ring Road (RRR) alignment, Pharma City and Lagacherla land acquisition projects, unemployed youth, and members of the Mala community opposing Scheduled Caste sub-categorisation. Their participation was aimed at drawing national attention to their issues through the symbolic act of contesting the election.
Election Commission officials said the final number of nominations would be confirmed on Wednesday, as candidates who arrived before the 3 pm deadline were still in queue to file papers late into the night. The returning officer allowed all those who reached before the cutoff time of 3pm to complete the process. By 10 pm, around 100 nominations had been reportedly received, while more than 50 candidates were still waiting in queue to submit theirs.
The nomination process began on October 13. By October 19, as many as 96 candidates had filed their papers. No nominations were accepted on October 19 and 20 due to Sunday and the Diwali holiday. With October 21 being the final day, the last-minute rush was massive. Among political parties, BJP nominee Lankala Deepak Reddy submitted his papers on the last day, while BRS candidate Maganti Sunitha and Congress candidate V. Naveen Yadav had filed earlier on October 15 and 17, respectively.
Farmers affected by land acquisition for the Regional Ring Road were filing papers to press their demand for realignment of the project to prevent land loss, while those from Pharma City and Lagacherla sought scrapping of the projects and return of acquired land. Unemployed youth demanded release of a job calendar and reconduct of the Group-I examination. Mala groups protested against the SC sub-categorisation, and several minority candidates filed nominations alleging neglect of minority welfare schemes.
