After vote notification, Telangana is bracing for a three-way struggle
The Election Commission said on Thursday that the 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana would be up for election, and that a by-election will be held on May 13 to fill the Secunderabad Cantonment Assembly seat. This will create a three-way race between the BJP, the opposition BRS, and the incumbent Congress.
The procedure of accepting nominations has begun with the notification problem. The final day to submit nominations is April 25.
The deadline for withdrawing a candidacy is April 29, and the nominations will be examined starting on April 26.
On May 13, voting will take place in all 17 Lok Sabha seats as well as in the by-election for the Secunderabad Cantonment Assembly seat.
Voting in the state’s 104 Assembly segments will take place from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., while in the remaining 13 segments that are impacted by Left Wing Extremism (LWE), it will end at 4 p.m.
The eligible voters in these elections are little over 3.30 crore, with over half of them being women.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won four seats, while Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) won nine. While All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) held Hyderabad, the Congress party had taken three seats.
Following its triumph in the November 2023 Assembly elections, the Congress party hopes to fare better this time around. With an objective of 12 seats, the party hopes to take advantage of the leaders of BRS who have defected to the Congress side in recent months.
The BJP is optimistic about doing better after their strong showing in the Assembly elections. The goal of the saffron party is to reach double digits.
The BRS will have a tough challenge in holding onto the seats it gained in 2019. The party was shocked by the departure of a number of leaders, including five current MPs, MLAs, and MLCs.
After winning 64 of the 119 House seats in the Assembly elections, Congress had taken control of the legislative branch. 39 seats were won by the BRS, which has been in power in the youngest state in India for the last ten years. The AIMIM held onto seven seats, while the BJP won eight. In one seat, Congress’s ally, the CPI, emerged triumphant.
Due to the death of Lasya Nanditha, a BRS incumbent MLA from Secunderabad Cantonment, in a traffic accident in February, both the Lok Sabha elections and a by-election were required.
Two MLAs in office were also lost by the BRS to Congress. One of them, D. Nagender, is running for the Congress in the Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency, which is being challenged by Union Minister and state president of the BJP, G. Kishan Reddy, who is running for reelection.
Asaduddin Owaisi, the president of AIMIM, and Madhavi Latha, the leader of the BJP, will square off in Hyderabad. Since 1984, Owaisi’s party has had the position.
The Congress has not yet declared candidates for Khammam, Karimnagar, or Hyderabad, whereas the BJP and BRS have announced candidates for each of the 17 seats.
