The State election officials have embarked upon preparing the final list of contesting candidates in the forthcoming elections to the Legislative Assembly slated on December 7 after the last date for withdrawal of nominations expired on Thursday afternoon.

According to reports received from the 10 erstwhile districts, 1,826 candidates remained in the fray after the closure of withdrawal at 3 p.m. Hyderabad topped the list with 313 contesting candidates followed by Ranga Reddy with 304 while Nizamabad had reported the least number of 91 nominations. Nalgonda had 211 contesting candidates and Mahabubnagar 180, closely followed by Karimnagar (175) and Warangal (172). There are 123 candidates in the fray in Adilabad, 124 in Medak and 133 in Khammam.

The election authorities received huge number of over 3,580 nominations; 2,087 filed on the last day of filing of nominations on November 19 alone. Scrutiny of the nominations was taken up on November 20 and the process spilled over to the next day. Sources said the election authority had rejected 503 applications on technical and other grounds including the absence of required number of proposers.

Major factors

Removal of multiple nominations filed by the candidates was another major factor that contributed to the reduced number of nominations. Another factor that reportedly reduced the number of contesting candidates was the withdrawal by rebel candidates as well as independents in the fray after the major political parties succeeded in convincing them promising due recognition to them once the elections are over.

Major parties by and large succeeded in convincing the rebel candidates who filed their nominations in protest against the decision of the respective parties not to field them. Congress rebels who filed their nominations from Kamareddy, Banswada and Yellareddy constituencies were convinced to withdraw their forms while the party leadership had convinced the rebel candidate in Chevella too to withdraw his nomination.

Similarly, TDP rebel candidates who filed their papers from Serilingampally constituency agreed to stay out of the contest while the TRS rebel from Qutbullahpur constituency had also been convinced, sources said. The TRS’ rebels from Kodad and several Congress rebels from Nalgonda reportedly conceded the respective party leadership’s request to withdraw their nominations resulting in significant reduction in the number of contesting candidates.