Scramble for tickets intensifies in Sec’bad Cantonment by-poll

Hyderabad: With the sudden demise of Secunderabad Cantonment Board MLA Lasya Nandita in a road accident and the Election Commission recently announcing the by-polls to fill the vacant seat, the poll bugle has been sounded. Scramble for tickets has intensified by various potential candidates of different parties, as they will once again try their luck in the elections.

The Secunderabad Cantonment is one of the seven Assembly segments in the Malkajgiri Parliamentary constituency. Nandita, daughter of former MLA the late G Sayanna, contested the elections from the Assembly elections on the BRS ticket. She won defeating the BJP candidate N Sriganesh, who recently joined the Congress, by 17,169 votes in 2023.

According to sources, with the announcement of the by-polls on May 13, though no party--be it BRS, BJP or the Congress--top brass has announced candidates, but several senior leaders of BRS and Congress are in the race for grabbing tickets.

According to analysts, recently Lasya Nivedita, the elder sister of Nandita, announced her intent to contest in the by-poll. But the BRS is yet to announce its nominee; if she is given ticket there is a chance of her wining due to sympathy votes. Two senior BRS leaders, Manne Krishank and Gajjala Nagesh, are among the aspirants. Arepally Parshuram, the former general secretary of the All-India Cantonment Board Employees’ Federation, not given BJP ticket in the Assembly poll, is hoping for ticket. Leaders like Sriganesh, who left the BJP, may give a tough fight to Nivedita. There is also talk that Priyadarshini Medi, Nakrekal in-charge of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is also in the ticket race, as also GV Vennela, the daughter of Balladeer Gaddar, from the Congress.