10 candidates, including 8 independents file nominations on first day

Hyderabad: The Election authorities on Monday issued the gazette notification for the Jubilee Hills assembly bypoll, scheduled for November 11, initiating the process of nominations filing. As many as 10 candidates filed nominations on the first day.

The process of filing nominations began on Monday at MRO Office, Shaikpet, Road No 2, Banjara Hills.

As per the schedule, nominations will be accepted till October 21. Scrutiny of papers will be held on October 22, and the last date for withdrawal of nominations is October 24. Polling for the by-election will be conducted on November 11, and counting will take place on November 14.

On the first day, mostly independent candidates, including Salman Khan, C Chandrashekar, PK Paraikshit Reddy, S Srikanth, Syed Mustafa Hussain, Ibrahim Khan, V Vikram Reddy, S Suman (all independent candidates), A Srinivasa Rao (Navataram Party) and P Srinivas (Telangana Udyamakarulu Sangham), filed the nominations.

Meanwhile, police made foolproof arrangements for the nominations filing at the Shaikpet MRO office. Senior police officials, including Joint Commissioner Iqbal, West Zone DCP Srinivas, and ACPs of Banjara Hills and Punjagutta inspected the security arrangements and reviewed the situation on the ground.

To maintain order, vehicles were not allowed within a 100-metre radius of the nomination centre. Authorities have also instructed candidates and their representatives to strictly adhere to the guidelines issued by the police during nominations filing.

On Monday, the District Election Officer and GHMC commissioner RV Karnan issued a clarification after an inquiry alleging malpractices in voter addition in view of the high number of electors from individual addresses.

The inquiry was conducted into four cases where many voters were found registered in each house. There were allegations that 50 voters were registered under one door number, while 43 electors were found under another door number.

After the inquiry, the DEO found that these names have been part of the final rolls for the 2023 Telangana State Legislative Assembly elections and 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He clarified that no new enrolments were made in the four addresses.

It was also found that a few of the mentioned house numbers have multiple residences, leading to a higher count of electors. Over 50 voters were found at a house which has three floors and a penthouse. At another house, where 43 voters were found registered, there are 15 flats.

“It is observed that there is no change in the number of electors in the house numbers since 2023, and the allegations that these are newly enrolled voters are completely false,” said the DEO Karnan.

As per the final electoral roll published recently, the constituency has 3,99,000 voters – 2,07,382 males, 1,91,593 females and 25 third-gender voters.

In the 2023 Assembly elections, the constituency had 3,85,287 voters. Thus, there has been an increase of 3.49 per cent voters.