Karimnagar: Many persons who had come to file their nomination papers for the October 30 Huzurabad Assembly byelections as a mark of protest against their unmet demands alleged that the they were being unfairly turned away by election officials to stop them from contesting.
The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of field assistants of the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) has decided to field around 1,000 candidates to protest their termination from their jobs.
On Thursday a large number of them came to file their papers but police did not allow them to enter the revenue division office. In protest, they staged a dharna at Ambedkar Chowrasta.
Some of them said that the police were threatening the locals who had lined up to support their candidature, as they are outsiders. “We will move the Supreme Court if this is not stopped,” they said. Besides, they would begin a campaign against Chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao.
The Osmania University Joint Action Committee (OU JAC) has decided to field around 200 unemployed youth to protest the government’s policies. The OUJAC will be taking the support of the YSRTP.
Some OU students who went to Huzurabad to file their papers were sent back for not having the mandatory support of 10 locals for each candidate.
But one of the students, Vurumalla Vishwam, alleged he had submitted all certificates and documents and the support of 10 local members but was turned away
"They gave silly reasons. As some of the locals who supported my candidature had not taken the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccination the officials said that they will not accept their nomination. They are killing democracy,” said Vishwam.
Taking the issue to the notice of district collector R.V. Karnan was of no use, he said and added the government was trying to prevent them from filing thier nomination papers.
Candidates from the Telangana Lecturer Forum too faced a similar situation. Forum president Murali Manohar had earlier announced that 200 members would file papers to protest discrimination. Their papers were rejected for not submitting Covid vaccinaton certificate.
Some representatives of caste communities went to the RDO to file their nomination papers to press their demand for welfare schemes. The officials made them stand in a long queue line and later rejected their nominations after asking them to download the relevant forms from the website of the Election Commission of India.
One of the officials on condition of anonymity, “We have received certain guidelines from the Election Commission and from the state government which we were implementing during the filing of nominations. When candidates come with all the required documents, they are allowed to file their papers,” he said.
A large number of police personnel were deployed at the RDO Huzurabad to prevent untoward incidents.
