Top guns of the major political parties, including TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao, TPCC president Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Vijayashanti, CPI secretary K. Narayana and Union Minister S. Jaipal Reddy, filed their papers for the Assembly and Lok Sabha on Wednesday on the last date of filing of nominations.
Sticking to the sentiment, many of them visited temples before filing their papers. In some instances, enthusiastic party workers took out rallies with the candidates travelling in open jeeps. There was mad rush with the candidates making a dash to the offices of the Returning Officers (ROs) in the 10 districts of Telangana.
Strict adherence of the model code of conduct came as a deterrent to the parties as the leaders took adequate measures not to invite the attention of Election Commission officials monitoring the expenditure. Rising temperatures made the task of police personnel easy as the leaders did not wait for a minute after completing the process.
If Congress MP Anjan Kumar Yadav danced with tribal women in the procession, BJP’s Bandaru Dattatreya accompanied by wife and daughter made it to the Returning Officer’s chambers. Some leaders preferred padayatra to reach the offices.
The TRS chief drove down to the Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple at Konaipally near Siddipet to offer prayers, which he has been doing for the last 13 years. He then boarded a private helicopter to reach Sangareddy district headquarters where he filed his papers for the Medak LS seat and later air-dashed to Gajwel to submit the papers for the Assembly seat too. Mr. Rao’s daughter K. Kavitha filed the nomination papers for Nizamabad LS in a low-key affair.
Ms. Vijayashanti proceeded to the Konaipally temple before the arrival of Mr. Rao and sought the blessings of the presiding deity and went by road to Medak to file her papers for the Medak Assembly seat as Congress candidate. Mr. Ponnala Lakshmaiah and working president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy led the Congress candidates in the region in filing the papersfor the Jangaon seat and Huzurnagar seat.
Mr. Jaipal Reddy (Mahbubnagar LS), Union Ministers – Sarvey Satyanarayana and P. Balaram Naik, former Ministers – K. Jana Reddy, J. Geetha Reddy, D.K. Aruna, D. Sridhar Babu, P. Sudarshan Reddy, Danam Nagender, M. Mukesh Goud, B. Saraiah and R. Venkat Reddy -- filed their papers. Former Speaker K.R. Suresh Reddy (Armoor) and former PCC chief D. Srinivas (Nizamabad Rural) submitted their papers. All the Congress MPs retained by the party filed their papers while Shravan Kumar Reddy submitted the nomination papers for the Medak LS seat.
BJP leaders Mr. Dattatreya (Secunderabad LS) and Ch. Vidyasagar Rao (Karimnagar) along with a host of other leaders filed the papers. Among the TDP stalwarts, MP Nama Nageswara Rao filed his nomination paper for the Khammam Lok Sabha not before he faced some embarrassing moments at the hands of his rival Tummala Nageswara Rao’s supporters who created a scene for denying ticket to a strong contender for the Kothagudem seat. The rally taken out by Mr. Nama Nageswara Rao saw the bullocks carrying the cart going berserk after crackers were burst. Two party workers sustained injuries.
Mr. Narayana undertook a padayatra to the Khammam Collectorate to file his papers. . There was a fair share of YSR Congress candidates ,including former DGP V. Dinesh Reddy (Malkajgiri), submitting their papers. MIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi filed the papers from Chandrayangutta.
