Lok Sabha elections: 7 candidates file nominations in Telangana on Day 1

HYDERABAD: The Lok Sabha election tempo picked up as several candidates filed their nomination papers on the first day on Monday.
According to the office of the chief electoral officer, nominations were filed for five of 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in Telangana. Prominent among those who field their nominations were Asaduddin Owaisi of AIMIM from Hyderabad, B Vinod Kumar of TRS from Karimnagar and Ramesh Rathod of Congress from Adilabad (ST).
CEO Rajat Kumar said nominations would be accepted till March 25 except Holi (March 21), fourth Saturday (March 23) (which have been declared as official holidays) and Sunday (March 24).
Rajat Kumar told the media, “We have made all arrangements for the Lok Sabha elections, including beefing up security. Election observers will be coming to the state in the next two to three days. While filing nominations in Form 26, foreign assets of the candidate should also be included. Each and every column should be filled by the candidates. We are focusing on the expenditure of 10 constituencies. The central forces will come to the state in the next two or three days.” Code violations would be viewed seriously, the CEO said and warned political parties to refrain from disfiguring public and private properties with banners, cutouts and other campaign material.
Meanwhile, orders were issued by the CEO allocating various poll-related subjects to senior officials. Additional chief electoral officer Jyothy Budha Prakash is in charge of electronic voting machines (EVMs), voter verification paper audit trail (VVPATs) gadgets, media certification and monitoring committee and training. Joint CEO Amrapali Kata would supervise all IT applications and aspects related to conduct of elections and electoral rolls, webcasting, polling stations and monitoring of calendar activities of general elections. IFS officer and Joint CEO T Ravi Kiran would oversee the Model Code of Conduct, law and order, social media and systematic voting education and electoral practice.