Hyderabad: The Jubilee Hills by-election has witnessed an unexpected surge of candidates filing nominations. Within the first six days, 94 nominations were submitted.
On the final day, Tuesday, as many as 189 candidates arrived at the Returning Officer’s office located in the Shaikpet Tahsildar’s premises in Banjara Hills to submit their nomination papers.
Due to the overwhelming turnout and the limited time until 3 pm, the Returning Officer issued tokens to enable candidates to file their papers in sequence. By around 9:30 pm, only 90 nominations had been processed.
With more awaiting clearance past midnight, officials sought special permission from the Election Commission to continue the nomination process after hours. If all papers are accepted, the total number of nominations will reach 283.
Several groups have joined the contest as a mark of protest against government policies. Farmers who had given land for the Pharma City project in Yacharam, landowners affected by the RRR land acquisition, representatives of unemployed youth unions demanding job recruitment, members of Mala community organizations calling for Scheduled Caste categorization, and associations of retired employees seeking post-retirement benefits all turned up to file nominations.
Tension briefly flared around the Shaikpet Tahsildar’s office. Farmers from Yacharam carried placards and shouted slogans such as “We don’t want Pharma City, we want our lands back.”
Police stopped members of unemployed unions near Road No. 3 in Banjara Hills, allowing only candidates and their supporters inside the premises.
Election authorities in Hyderabad clarified that the polls will be conducted using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), regardless of how many candidates contest.
They noted that the M3 model EVMs introduced by the Central Election Commission can accommodate up to 384 candidate names.
