23 in fray for bypoll: Bhanwar Lal

After withdrawals by eight candidates on Saturday and seven rejected a day before, a total of 23 candidates are in the fray for Warnagal bypoll for MP seat reserved for Scheduled Caste candidate, according to Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwar Lal.

Addressing mediapersons at his Secretariat chambers here, Bhanwar Lal said one candidate each from all political parties, including TRS, Congress, Telugu Desam and BJP combine, YCP and others are in fray including seven registered political parties and 12 independents. As many as 15,09,671 voters will exercise their franchise in 1778 polling stations. EVMs will have the display of ballot papers comprising candidate’s name, photo and symbol and 24th button is specified for NOTA with a symbol he stated.

He also said Rs 1.41 crore, a car and some liquor bottles were seized and inquiry was on for action. The bye elections scheduled to be held on November 21 and voting will begin from 7 am to 5 pm. Those who are in the polling stations by 5 pm will be allowed to exercise their franchise till late night. The counting of the votes will be taken up on November 24 from 8 am onwards. “We found 471 sensitive areas in the bypoll segment, including extremist-infested Bhupalpally and tight security will be in place, he said. He also said 148 teams of squad and other teams of officials will look into the voting pattern and 20 central paramilitary forces and state police will guard the election for smooth voting. Elaborate security arrangements have been made including tight vigilance on the voting patter with live coverage and videography. Complaints will be received and reply will be sent in message format on action taken.

After withdrawals, those in fray party wise are: P Dayakar (TRS), P Devaiah (BJP-TD combine), Sarve Satyanarayana (Congres), Y Suryaprakash (YSRCP), J Bhasker (Shramajivi Party), P Ramamurthy (Dalitha Bahujana Party), B Kranthi Kumar (Telangana Karmika Raithu Rajyam Party), V Mallaiah (RPI) and other 12 independents are – K Devadasu, G Babu, G Vinod Kumar,, G Sagar, J Mahender, J Sadanandam, P Devaraju, B Srinivas, B Susheela, Y Sunil, V Ramesh, R Prem Kumar, S Johnson and G Saibaba.

Enrollment till Nov 16

Meanwhile, Enrolment of Voter Identity cards was extended till November 16 from 4, he said. Those who do not have the voter identity cards can enroll their details for obtaining the same. The people obtaining voter identity cards should pay only Rs 25 for each. He also warned suspension of official or staff who demand more amount than that. (NSS)