Hyderabad, Nov 15 (PTI) Battle lines are drawn for the upcoming assembly elections in Telangana with the withdrawal of nominations coming to an end on Wednesday.

Several leaders of the Congress and other major parties who had filed nominations as independents after failing to obtain tickets to contest have withdrawn in favour of official candidates, sources in the parties said.

Election officials said the final number of candidates left in the fray would be known after information from the constituencies is received.

As per the latest reports, Telangana has over 3.26 crore eligible voters with almost equal number of men and women.

Serilingampally segment has the highest number of voters with over 7.32 lakh while Bhadrachalam registered the lowest with 1.49 lakh electors.

Election officials have found 2,898 nominations of candidates for the November 30 assembly elections to be valid before withdrawal and rejected nominations of 606 candidates during scrutiny on various grounds.

As the polling date nears, political parties have intensified their campaign with bigwigs like Prime Minister Narendra and several union ministers, apart from AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, set to participate in various poll rallies.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao making is whirlwind tours across the state canvassing for BRS candidates.

The BJP entered into a pre-poll tie up with its NDA partner Janasena led by actor Pawan Kalyan, giving it eight seats. Congress gave one seat to CPI as part of a seat-sharing agreement.

The BRS has fielded candidates in all 119 seats while its “friendly party” Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM is contesting in nine seats.

KCR, TPCC chief Revanth Reddy and senior BJP leader Etala Rajender are contesting in two segments each.

Rao is contesting from Gajwel, where Rajender is also contesting, while the Congress has fielded Revanth Reddy from Kamareddy where too KCR is contesting. Reddy is also the Congress candidate from Kodangal.

Counting of votes for the November 30 election will be taken up on December 3. PTI GDK ANE