Hyderabad: Ahead of the ensuing by-poll to the Nagarjuna Sagar assembly constituency in Nalgonda district, candidates belonging to the major political parties in the state filed nominations on Tuesday, the last day for filing.
An interesting battle awaits with the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) naming a novice and son of the former MLA late Nomula Narsimhaiah, Nomula Bhagat Kumar. Ministers Mahmood Ali, Jagadish Reddy and Talsani Srinivas Yadav among others accompanied Nomula Bhagat to the RO office on Tuesday morning.
The by-election was necessitated due to the death of Narsimhaiah in December last year and Bhagat Kumar is likely to bank on sympathy votes, along with TRS’ confidence due to its victory in the graduates’ MLC elections.
Narsimahaih won the Nakrekal Assembly constituency in 1999 and 2004 as a candidate of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) but lost the subsequent elections, in Bhuvanagiri in 2009 and Nagarjunasagar 2014.
In 2018, he trumped over the sitting Congress stalwart K. Jana Reddy, by over 7,000 votes.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) picked P Ravi Kumar Naik, a doctor who is also a political novice, as its candidate for the by-poll. Naming Naik is the party’s effort to capture the tribal votes, disrupting Congress’ vote bank.
BJP MLA from Goshamahal, Raja Singh accompanied Naik, as he submitted the nomination papers on Tuesday.
Congress, on the other hand, had yet again named party strongman and former cabinet minister K Jana Reddy as their candidate on the same day the Election Commission of India announced the by-polls. Nagarjuna Sagar is a citadel of this veteran Congress leader and the strong party cadre here is a plus point in Reddy’s favor.
In March, the election commission of India had announced that the Nagarjunasagar Assembly by-poll will be held on April 17 and counting of votes on May 2.
Last date for withdrawal of candidature is April 3.