Kankanala Niveditha Reddy on Friday filed nomination as the candidate of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for bypoll to Nagarjuna Sagar Assembly constituency.
Even before the BJP officially announced its nominee, party incharge for the constituency filed her nomination papers for April 17 bypoll.
This came a day after BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar held a meeting with the ticket aspirants in the Assembly segment.
The saffron party was reportedly considering names of Ravi Naik and Kadari Anjaiah Yadav besides Niveditha Reddy. It was said to be waiting for the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the Congress to declares their candidates.
Niveditha Reddy had contested unsuccessfully as BJP candidate from the constituency in 2018 elections.
Meanwhile, 10 nominations were filed for the bypoll on Friday.
In another development, field assistants under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme are planning to file mass nominations for the by-election to press for their demands. Field assistants' association president Chinta Kripakar said if their demands were not met by March 28, they will file the nominations. He said 300 field assistants were ready to file their papers.
March 30 is the last day for filing nominations for the by-poll, necessitated by the death of sitting legislator Nomula Narsimhaiah of TRS in December last year.
TRS has still not decided its candidate while former minister K. Jana Reddy is likely to contest as the Congress candidate.
In 2018, Narsimhaiah had defeated his nearest rival Jana Reddy of Congress by a margin of 7,771 votes. While Narsimhaiah polled 83,655 votes, Jana Reddy secured 75,884 votes. Niveditha Reddy of BJP could get only 2,675 votes.
The Election Commission of India has already announced that the election will be conducted through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).