HYDERABAD: Hundreds of independents were turned away from entering the fray in Huzurabad even as the nomination filing process ended on Friday. BJP’s Eatala Rajender, TRS party’s Gellu Srinivas Yadav and Balmoori Venkat of Congress are the three main contenders in the October 30 bypolls.
Several independent candidates staged a protest in front of the office of the returning officer alleging that they were denied their democratic right to enter the electoral fray. They also wrote a letter to the chief electoral officer explaining how police and polling officials saw to it that they could not file their nominations.
As many as 1,000 field assistants had planned to contest the polls as they were removed from their jobs in the MGNREGS. One of the conditions that was put to the independents was that they should produce a certificate stating that they had taken two doses of vaccine in addition to showing the two doses inoculation certificate of 10 proposers, who also should be physically present at the time of filing of the nomination.
“These rules violate the democratic right,” Raju, K Sayanna and B Ravi Teja, who sought to contest as independent. From the time the nomination process began on October 1, independents said they had been facing obstacles.
Speaking to agitating field assistants, he said police were only concerned about enforcing the model code of conduct. “Even sloganeering is a violation of model code of conduct at the time of filing of nomination,” he told them.
