Hyderabad, Oct 15 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday announced Lankala Deepak Reddy as its candidate for by-election to Jubilee Hills Assembly seat in Telangana.

The Central Election Committee of the party cleared the name of Deepak Reddy from the list of three names recommended by the party’s state unit.

The names of Deepak Reddy, Juturu Keerthi Reddy and Veerapaneni Padma were reportedly sent to the party’s central leadership by the state election committee.

Deepak Reddy will be contesting as the BJP candidate from Jubilee Hills in his second consecutive election. He had finished third in the 2023 elections.

Maganti Gopinath of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) had defeated former Indian cricket captain and Congress candidate Mohammed Azharuddin by 16,337 votes to win the seat for the third consecutive term.

In a multi-cornered contest, Gopinath had secured 80,549 votes while Azharuddin had polled 64,212 votes. Deepak Reddy was in third position with 25,866 votes.

Gopinath’s demise in June this year necessitated the by-election. The BRS has fielded Gopinath’s wife Maganti Sunitha.

The ruling Congress party announced Naveen Yadav as its candidate.

As per the schedule announced by the Election Commission of India, the official notification for the by-election was issued on October 13.

The last date for filing nominations is October 21. Scrutiny of nominations will be held on October 22, and withdrawal of candidature will be allowed until October 24.

The polling will be held on November 11, while the counting of votes will take place on November 14.

Meanwhile, Hyderabad District Election Officer R.V. Karnan has announced that the Election Commission of India has issued a notification, prohibiting the conduct, publication, and publicity of exit polls in connection with the by-election.

The ban period will be from 7 a.m. on November 6 to 6:30 p.m. on November 11. During this time, no one is allowed to conduct, publish, or share any exit poll results or predictions, including on TV, radio, newspapers, websites, YouTube, WhatsApp, X, Facebook, Instagram, or any other digital platform.

–IANS

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