HYDERABAD: As many as 626 candidates from recognised national parties, State parties and Independents who contested the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections failed to win a single seat.
The candidates from these parties ended up reducing the vote share of the major parties of TRS, BJP, AIMIM and Congress. In about 70 wards, independent candidates got less than 10 votes while a few hundred candidates polled less than 100 votes.
In a curious case, independent candidate Rajinikanth T who contested from Jangammet ward did not get a single vote, indicating that he either did not vote or voted for another party.
The Telugu Desam Party contested from 106 wards, CPI from 17 wards and CPM from 12 wards. Minor State parties fielded candidates from 76 wards, and Independents contested in 415 divisions. About 950, or 85 per cent of the total candidates lost their deposits. A candidate loses their deposit of `10,000 if they get less than one-sixth of the votes.
Many parties registered by the Telangana State Election Commission (TSEC) like Telangana Jana Samithi (TJSP), Marxist Communist Party of India (United) (MCPIU), Indian National Yuva Jana Party (INYJP), All India Forward Bloc (AIFB), AIMIM Inquilab and others fielded candidates in most of the wards but could not make any headway.Instead of voting for political parties or independent candidates, many voters franchised the none of the above (NOTA) option.