Hyderabad, Nov 1 Campaign for by-elections in Dubbak Assembly constituency of Telangana came to an end on Sunday evening.
Leaders of major political parties addressed a series of rallies and conducted road shows in a last minute bid to woo the voters.
A total of 23 candidates are in the fray for November 3 bypoll, necessitated by the death of S. Ramalinga Reddy of ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
The TRS has fielded Ramalinga Reddy's widow S. Sujatha. She is locked in a three-cornered contest with Congress party's Cheruku Srinivas Reddy and BJP's M. Raghunandan Rao.
While Srinivas Reddy had defected from TRS to Congress early last month, Raghunandan Rao had unsuccessfully contested the polls from the same constituency in 2014 and 2018.
Nearly 1.99 lakh voters are eligible to cast their votes in the constituency. Authorities have made elaborate arrangements for the peaceful and smooth conduct of the elections.
On the last day of the campaign, leaders of the three parties and candidates conducted intensive campaign.
TRS leader and Finance Minister T. Harish Rao addressed a series of meetings to urge voters to support Sujatha to enable her to continue the development works undertaken by her late husband.
Harish Rao urged people to reject both Congress and BJP saying they can't do any good for them.
State Congress chief Uttam Kumar Reddy along with other state leaders campaigned extensively for the party candidate. They called upon voters to elect Srinivas Reddy, who is the son of former Minister Muthyam Reddy.
BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar and party MP from Nizamabad D. Arvind addressed the rallies on the last day.
Union Minister of State G. Kishan Reddy also campaigned for the party candidate.
The last day saw all the three main parties targeting each other.
The day also witnessed dramatic development in Hyderabad where police seized Rs 1 crore from a relative of the BJP candidate. Police said the money was being taken to Dubbak for distribution among voters.
Last week, Rs 18.67 lakh were seized from another relative of the BJP candidate in Siddipet. Police said over Rs 12 lakh were taken away by BJP workers after attacking them.
BJP leaders had alleged that police planted the money at the residence of Raghunandan Rao at the instance of TRS government.
Meanwhile, Raghunandan Rao claimed that he had nothing to do with Rs 1 crore seized from his brother-in-law in Hyderabad.
He said the cash was given by management of one company to the other and it can't be called 'hawala' money.
( With inputs from IANS )
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