Hyderabad: Parties in a quandary over slew of independents in Council poll fray

Hyderabad: The political parties are now worried of the large number of independent candidates in fray in the Council election under graduates quota to be held on March 14 as there are as many as 135 independent candidates in the two Graduates constituencies apart from the recognised political parties.

With the last day of withdrawal ending on Friday, the number of candidates in both the Graduates constituencies are 164 including 93 in Mahabubnagar-Ranga Reddy-Hyderabad and 71 in Nalgonda-Warangal-Khammam constituency.

According to the Election Commission, five candidates withdrew their nomination papers on Friday. Among those who withdrew the nominations include former MLC and Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Kapilvai Dileep from Mahabubnagar-Ranga Reddy-Hyderabad Graduates constituency. Other four candidates include two each from the two Graduates constituencies.

The leaders are worried that these many candidates would eat away their vote share and this would impact their chances in the election.

This is not the first time that these many nominations were filed by the independents. Huge number of independents and the turmeric farmers had filed nominations during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Nizamabad.

These candidates not only collectively received over a lakh votes but also ensured defeat of TRS leader Kalvakuntla Kavitha. In another election, the victims in the Polepally village filed nominations protesting against the SEZ.

According to the political analysts, most of the independents do not hope to win the election but want to upset the applecart of the mainstream political parties. They tend to give a message that they cannot take their votes for granted.

The parties try to persuade these independents to withdraw. The BJP has ensured that the Rashtriya Lok Dal candidate Dileep withdrew the nomination. Party leaders said that Dileep had withdrawn in support of N Ramchander Rao.