Farmers Force: Ballot war in Nizamabad

Hyderabad: Election authorities in Telangana have written to the Election Commission of India over Nizamabad Lok Sabha poll as 185 candidates were left in the fray after the closure of withdrawals on Thursday, necessitating election by ballot paper instead of EVMs. Telangana CEO Rajat Kumar said the ECI would decide on the mode of election in Nizamabad.

Sixty candidates withdrew from the election race in different Lok Sabha segments on the last day of withdrawals on Thursday. With this, a total of 443 candidates are left in the fray for April 11 election in Telangana.

The highest number of withdrawals were seen in Bhongir (10), while only four members withdrew their candidature in Nizamabad. While the total number of candidates was below 30 in each of the 16 segments, Nizamabad alone is left with 185 candidates for the election, a majority of whom are farmers from 11 mandals.

The sitting MP from Nizamabad Kalvakuntla Kavitha (TRS) will be fighting it out with 184 opponents to retain the seat. Elaborating details about the mode of election in Nizamabad, Rajat Kumar said the state election office has no authority to postpone the poll citing ballot paper format.

Conducting a ballot paper election is not an easy task as they have to keep in mind the size of the ballot paper and also the box owing to a big number of candidates in the race.

He said the latest machines from BEL can support 383 candidates to hold elections through EVMs. However, when it comes to the machines from ECIL, only 64 candidates could be supported and if the number exceeds, then voting through EVM mode is not possible, he added.

The CEO said that ballot papers would be of white colour and the commission needs five days to print them. It may be mentioned here that the number of

voters in Nizamabad Lok Sabha segment is roughly 15.5 lakh.

He said the national parties would be at the top followed by regional parties, all in alphabetic order in the ballot paper. He said that 93 election symbols were available to be given to Independents out of which 10 are reserved, which means 83 symbols are left to be allotted.

About total seizures made in the state, he said that Rs 23 crore worth of cash, liquor (2.12 lakh litres), drugs and narcotics, metals, etc, were seized by authorities.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission has set up a complaint cell (Phone: 94906 17523) in the DGP office to take calls on objectionable and unauthorized SMSs violating model code of conduct.