130 candidates’ nominations for Jubilee Hills by-election rejected

Hyderabad: The nominations of 81 candidates for the Jubilee Hills Assembly bypoll here were found valid by the Election Commission during scrutiny, while papers of 130 candidates were rejected, officials said on Thursday. A total of 321 nominations were filed by 211 candidates, with some of them filing two sets of nominations. During the scrutiny of nomination papers that began on Wednesday, nominations of 81 candidates were accepted and 130 candidates were rejected, an official release said. As per the schedule, the last date for withdrawal of candidatures is October 24. The high-stakes bypoll to Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency here would take place on November 11, with votes to be counted on November 14. This bypoll is necessitated due to the death of BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath in June this year, following a heart attack.

The ruling Congress in Telangana announced V Naveen Yadav as its candidate, while the opposition BRS fielded Maganti Sunitha, widow of the late MLA. The BJP nominated Lankala Deepak Reddy. AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi had said the party will support Congress candidate Naveen Yadav in the Jubilee Hills Assembly bypoll. The EC's new measures, including affixing colour photographs of candidates on EVMs, use of Artificial Intelligence-based surveillance and GPS-enabled monitoring of sensitive polling stations to prevent malpractice, would be in place for this bypoll.