2,290 candidates in fray for Telangana Assembly polls

Hyderabad, Nov 16: A total of 2,290 candidates are in the fray for November 30 elections to 119-member Telangana Assembly.

The Chief Electoral Officer said 608 candidates withdrew their nominations. November 15 was the last date for withdrawal of nominations.

Earlier, nominations of 2,898 candidates were found valid after 606 nominations were rejected.

LB Nagar constituency in Hyderabad has the largest number of contestants at 48, followed by Gajewel (44).

In Gajwel, where Chief Minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao is seeking re-election, 114 candidates had filed nominations. However, 70 of them withdrew their nominations. This was the highest number of withdrawals among all constituencies.

This time, KCR is also contesting from Kamareddy constituency, where 39 candidates are in fray. The chief minister is facing Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A. Revanth Reddy, who has also entered the fray from his home constituency Kodangal, where only 13 candidates are in fray.

In Gajwel which is in KCR's home district Siddipet, BJP has fielded its MLA and former minister Eatala Rajender, who is also contesting from Huzurabad, a seat which he won in the by-election as BJP candidate in 2021. A total of 22 constants are testing their political fortunes in Huzurabad.

There are 39 candidates In Munugode, where Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy is the Congress candidate. He recently returned to Congress from BJP, which he had joined last year but lost the by-election from the same seat on the saffron party's ticket.

Banswada, where Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy is seeking re-election, and Narayanpet have the lowest number of contestants at 7 each. Balkonda will see the contest among eight candidates.

BRS is contesting all 119 seats on its own while Congress has left one seat for its ally CPI.

The BJP is contesting 111 seats and has left remaining seats for its ally Jana Sena Party. MIM is contesting nine seats and backing BRS in the remaining seats.