Huzurabad: Covid vaccination certificate hurdle stares at bypoll contestants

Huzurabad: The by-election to Huzurabad Assembly constituency is witnessing all kinds of twists and turns.

The unemployed and the field assistants, who were planning to file nominations in large number, were stumped when the returning officers told them that vaccination certificate for candidates filing nomination was must. Many of them are yet to get the second dose of vaccination.

Unhappy with this clause, the field assistants said they would nevertheless form into groups and take up door-to-door campaign against the TRS candidate.

According to ECI guidelines, not only the candidates but also the agents, staff participating in the election duty should also produce vaccination certificates since they would be interacting with a lot of people.

The unemployed and field assistants of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA) had earlier announced that they would file nominations in large number for the bypoll to register their protest against the government on the lines of the turmeric farmers, who had filed hundreds of nominations in the Nizamabad Lok Sabha elections in 2019. A large number of field assistants had lined up at the office of the Returning Officer for the Huzurabad bypoll on Thursday to file nomination papers. But most of them had returned disappointed. Apart from the vaccination certificate, they were asked to get signatures of 20 local people. They also alleged that they were being threatened by the TRS party workers.

According to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), only nine nominations were filed on Thursday. BJP candidate Eatala Rajender, his wife Jamuna and Congress candidate B Venkat have filed one set each. TRS candidate G Srinivas has already filed his nomination papers. There were five nominations by independents and one by Praja Ekta Party. Friday is the last day to file the nomination papers for the bypoll, which will be held on October 30.