Lok Sabha Elections: Ballot papers return to Nizamabad?

 In a rather historic turn of events, Nizamabad Parliamentary constituency saw as many as 182 nominations being filed on Monday.
Some of the farmers from Nizamabad Lok Sabha segment who filed their papers as part of a ‘mass nomination’ movement on Monday | Express
Some of the farmers from Nizamabad Lok Sabha segment who filed their papers as part of a ‘mass nomination’ movement on Monday | Express

HYDERABAD/NIZAMABAD : In a rather historic turn of events, Nizamabad Parliamentary constituency saw as many as 182 nominations being filed on Monday. Most of these nominations are part of a ‘mass nomination movement’, spearheaded by farmers of turmeric and red jowar who are, in turn, being backed by Village Development Committees (VDC).

By the end of the day, the constituency had as many as 245 prospective candidates. Their candidature will be rejected or confirmed once the papers are scrutinised over the next few days. TRS’ K Kavitha’s re-election bid will not be without opponents after all. 

The biggest indication of the historic nature of the events is perhaps the announcement by Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar that the election at this seat could be conducted using ballot papers instead of EVMs. 
It may recalled that farmers of red jowar and turmeric have been protesting for a long time for the government to ensure they get remunerative prices for their produce.

Turmeric farmers have demanded the formation of a Turmeric Board and for a Minimum Support Price (MSP). In solidarity with them, even farmers of sugar cane and workers of Bodhan Sugar Factory filed nominations of their own. 

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Rajat Kumar said around 8.5 lakh ballot papers would be needed for elections at Nizamabad. “The scrutiny of nominations will begin on Tuesday. If there are more than 96 candidates at the end of it, we will start printing ballot papers on war footing,” he said. 

The process of preparing ballot paper with names of candidates and party symbols would be completed by April 2 and thereafter go for printing, an activity that will take around two days.

“With the current polling infrastructure allotted to Nizamabad, each controlling unit (CU) can accommodate only six balloting units (BU). This means, they can be used only when the number of candidate is less that 96. With 245 prospective candidates, ballot papers could be needed,” he said. 

Meanwhile, the ECI has begun a probe into allegations that some officials had discouraged a few farmers from filing nominations a couple of days ago on March 22.

The farmers had said that the ERO, district collector and commissioner of police had discouraged them and that officials refused to accept their submissions even though they were there during office hours. It was late in the evening before the officials accepted the papers. 

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