After the deadline for withdrawal of nominations ended on Monday, while 36 candidates withdrew their nominations, 47 candidates remained in the fray for the November 3 Munugode Assembly bypoll. While 130 candidates had filed their papers, the Election Commission rejected 47 during scrutiny on October 15. 83 nominations were declared valid.Among them, 36 candidates, who are mostly independents, withdrew their nominations on Monday.
Each Electronic Voting Machine can accommodate 16 different candidate options. Three EVMs will be used by the Election Commission to accommodate the 47 candidates. Meanwhile, the three major parties in the fray, the TRS, BJP and the Congress made all efforts to persuade independent candidates to withdraw from the contest to avoid split of votes in the high-stakes battle.
According to the minister Errabelli Dyakar Rao, the candidates have entered the fray to highlight their problems and that he had spoken with TRS working president and minister K.T.Rama Rao who had given him the assurance that the government would consider their demands positively post the bypoll. The independent candidates had agreed to withdraw their nominations, following assurances from K.T.Rama Rao.
A representation was submitted to the EC by the TRS on the 10th of this month seeking deletion of 8 symbols from the list of free symbols for the Munugode bypoll, because they are identical to the TRS Car symbol. The party member requested EC to delete symbols of camera, chapati roller, doli, road roller, soap dish, television, sewing machine and ship. On Monday, the TRS had filed a petition in the Telangana High Court seeking deletion of these 8 symbols.