The deadline for filing nominations for the Nagarjuna Sagar Assembly seat in Telangana and the Tirupati Lok Sabha seat in AP for the April 17 by-election has concluded on Tuesday. The deadline for sub-withdrawal of nominations is April 3. According to preliminary information, a total of 52 nominations were filed in Sagar for this election, while 26 nominations were filed for Tirupati. Clarity is yet to come on this. In Tirupati, YCP, BJP and Congress candidates filed their nominations on Monday while TDP candidate Panabaka Lakshmi filed her nomination a week earlier. In Nagarjuna Sagar, candidates from the main parties TRS, Congress, BJP and TDP also filed nominations on Tuesday. A total of 28 nominations were filed in Sagar from recognized parties while 12 nominations were filed in Tirupati. The rest will be independent candidates. Withdrawal is due by April 3, when clarification on the number of eligible candidates will come after scrutiny of the nominations. It remains to be seen how many will remain in the ring after April 3.
Gurumurthy from YCP, Panabaka Lakshmi from TDP, Ratnaprabha from BJP-Janasena, Chinta Mohan from Congress, Yadagiri from CPM filed nominations for the Tirupati Lok Sabha while Jana Reddy from Congress, Nomula Bhagat from TRS and Dr Ravi Nayak and Arun Kumar from the TDP had filed their nominations.
When it comes to the candidates of the major parties, Congress candidate Jana Reddy has filed his nomination for the 11th time. He filed nominations 10 times until the 2018 election. Lost three times. Won 7 times. TRS candidate Nomula Bhagat, son of late MLA Nomula Narsimhaiah, BJP candidate Ravi Nayak, TDP candidate Mova Aruna Kumar and many others filed nominations for the first time. Panabaka Lakshmi had earlier filed nominations in Tirupati. Gurumurthy filed his nomination for the first time from YCP.
Nomula Narsimhaiah, who won from the TRS party in Nagarjuna Sagar, and Balli Durgaprasad, who won from the YSRCP as the Tirupati MP, had passed away creating a vacancy in those seats. By-elections will be held in this context. The election will be held on April 17 and the counting of votes will take place on May 2. While the ruling parties in both the states are trying to retain the sitting seats, the BJP is also making strenuous efforts to win these seats.