Over 700 file nominations for 17 LS seats in Telangana

Over 700 candidates have filed their nominations for April 11 elections to all 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana as the deadline for filing of nominations ended Monday.

The candidates included more than 200 farmers who filed their papers for Nizamabad seat, from where Chief Minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K. Chandrashekhar Rao's daughter K. Kavitha is seeking re-election, as Independents.

A majority of them submitted their papers on the last day. They entered the fray to highlight their problems.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Rajat Kumar said 245 nominations were received in Nizamabad. If the number of candidates exceeds 90, ballot papers will be used for the polling. He denied that any rules were violated in receiving the nominations from farmers.

The candidates who filed their nominations include state Congress chief Uttam Kumar Reddy (Nalgonda), Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi (Hyderabad), and former Union minister and Congress leader Renuka Chowdhary (Khammam).

The scrutiny of nominations will be taken up on March 26 while the last date for withdrawal of nominations is March 28.

Polling will be held on April 11 while the counting will take place on May 23.

The CEO said total number of voters in the state as per the final rolls stood at 2,96,97,269 including 1,49,19,751 men, 1,47,76,024 women and 1504 others.

The authorities have so far seized Rs 10.09 crore cash, liquor worth Rs 2.04 crore and drugs worth Rs 2.45 crore

--IANS

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