Why So Many Nominations Filed For Jubilee Hills Bypoll ?

In a big surprise to the state election commission of Telangana, more than 300 nominations have been filed for the high-stakes Jubilee Hills by-polls which is scheduled to be held on November 11th. In the first six days after the process has started, only 94 contestants filed nominations for the by-election. On the last day yesterday, a flurry of candidates came forward to contest in the election. As per reports, total 321 nominations from 211 candidates were received before the deadline. 

In 2019, the Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat witnessed a similar situation as hundreds of Turmeric farmers filed their nominations as a mark of protest. It is now believed that farmers those who were affected by the Regional Ring Road project, job seekers and residents whose homes were allegedly razed by HYDRAA have reportedly queued up on the last day to file their nominations for the Jubilee Hills constituency. 

Authorities said that EVMs can handle up to 300 candidates and the final number of contestants will be known after completion of nomination scrutiny in the next three days. Moreover, they have called for additional election machinery for deployment at 400 polling centres across the constituency. 

The key contenders in this prestigious poll are Maganti Sunitha from BRS, Naveen Yadav representing Congress and Deepak Reddy of BJP. All three of them submitted the nominations and already started their election campaigns. The seat fell vacant due to the untimely demise of BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath. 

While the Congress wants to wrest control and assert dominance of its rule in the last two years, the BRS is fighting for relevance after its defeat in the Secunderabad cantonment bypolls last year. The BJP wants to project itself as an alternative in the 2028 elections by improving its voting percentage in this poll. The suspense will end on November 14th.