Election Commission sets ball rolling for Telangana elections

New Delhi, November 3

The Election Commission on Friday set the ball rolling for the elections in Telangana by issuing the notification for the November 30 poll.

The upcoming elections are a three-way race among the BJP, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which is currently in power, and the Congress.

BRS won 88 seats in 2018 polls

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The BRS had won 88 of the 119 seats in the 2018 Assembly elections and got 47.4 per cent of the votes. The Congress second with 19 seats and 28.7 per cent of the votes. The saffron party managed to win only one seat in 2018.

The ruling BRS on August 21 released its first list, having names of 115 candidates. Of the 119 Assembly seats in the state, the party had withheld naming just four candidates. Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao will be contesting from two constituencies – Gajwel and Kamareddy.

The Congress has released two lists with 100 names. The Congress has declared its first list of 55 candidates on October 15. The second list comprised 45 names. Former Indian cricket team captain Mohammad Azharuddin features in Congress’ second list as a candidate from the Jubilee Hills constituency in Hyderabad.

The BJP has so far declared 88 candidates. The party had released the first list with 52 candidates and the second list with just one nominee earlier.

The party has revoked the suspension of its legislator T Raja Singh and re-nominated him from the Goshamahal seat. The BJP is also holding alliance talks with actor-turned-politician K Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party (JSP), whom it might allocate some seats.

The nomination filing process for the polls began today and it will continue till November 10. Scrutiny will be on November 13 and the last date for withdrawal of nomination is November 15. The counting of votes will be taken up on December 3.

The BRS had won 88 of the 119 seats in the 2018 Assembly elections and got 47.4 per cent of the votes. The Congress came in second place with 19 seats and 28.7 per cent of the votes. The BJP won only one seat in 2018.