HYDERABAD: A total of 133 candidates have submitted nominations for the August 6 polls to the Secunderabad Cantonment Board. While 75 applied for candidature on Monday, 58 turned up on Tuesday, the last date for nominations.

A majority of Tuesday's nominations were from the Telugu Desam Party, which had sent only one candidate Venugopal Reddy from ward VII on Monday. On Tuesday morning, the rest of TDP's candidates mustered all the supporters they could for the processions that began from their respective wards and converged near the Ganesh temple, a little ahead of the SCB office.

Matching the previous day's show of colourful strength by the Congress and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, the TDP cavalcade led by Cantonment MLA G. Sayanna had it all. Yellow flags fluttering in the wind, supporters shouting hoarse and dancing wildly, candidates tried to catch the attention of almost every passer-by, and yes, even a few activists dressed as mythological characters, including Lord Krishna.

Five wards

Mr. Sayanna, reiterating that TDP had grown enough in the Cantonment to gain at least five wards, said that for the first time in the history of the SCB elections, Congress would face a "really tough fight" this August. "Earlier, we used to just back independents who were ready to associate themselves with us. Now, our cadre and ground support is such that we have been able to field our own partymen as candidates in all the seven wards.

And that means the Congress is not going to find it easy," he said.

However, there seemed to be a few ruffled feathers within the party. The selection of its ward II candidate Sridhar Srinivas has not gone down that well with a few other senior TDP men, who have also filed their nominations.

Yet, Mr. Sayanna said with four days to go for withdrawal of nominations, he had enough time to convince them.

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