As many as 106 nominations were filed by 67 candidates on the last date for filing of nominations for the Huzurnagar by-poll on Monday.
The filing of nominations continued till 6.45 p.m., and a final figure from the District Election Officer D. Amoy Kumar came only at 8 p.m.
According to the Election Commission's website, not updated till Monday night, there are only 13 nominations by nine candidates.
And adding the Monday's tally, the authority said a total of 119 nominations were received from 76 candidates, between September 23 and 30, the dates fixed for filing of nominations.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi candidate Shanampudi Saidireddy, who walked with Energy Minister G. Jagadish Reddy at 11 a.m.along with legislators from the neighbouring Nakrekal, Miryalaguda and Kodad constituencies, was first to file the nomination on Monday.
Congress candidate N. Padmavathi Reddy filed her third set of nomination after arriving with mandal leaders, amid cheering by a large number of supporters in barricades.
A rare scene in old undivided Nalgonda was the waving of Telugu Desam Party flags for its contestant Chava Kiranmayi, and soon a red flag arrival was for Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate Parepalli Sekhar Rao.
As there was a delay in arrival of his State president K. Laxman, BJP candidate K. Rama Rao filed his set of nomination along with mandal leaders.
But the beeline to the office of the Returning Officer started in the afternoon, with a record turnout of independent candidates. Most of the candidates were farmers and the nominations too were 'issue-based.' Nearly 30 farmers were land oustees of Pulichintala project and 15 others expressed land-related disputes or absence of Pattadar passbooks as reasons. A few candidates were also from the Sarpanch Forum. Among the independent candidates was C. Naveen Kumar alias 'Teenmar Mallanna'.
The number of candidates would have been 40 more, if the TRS legal cell did not intervene. Lawyers of the Huzurnagar Bar Association withdrew their decision following assurances that police jurisdictional limits for Chintalapalem and Mellacheruvu Mandals would be allocated to Huzurnagar from Kodad.
Election Officer Amoy Kumar said the authority will take up scrutiny of nominations on Tuesday, and validly nominated and rejected candidates list will be published.
The final list of contesting candidates will be published in a gazette on October 3, Thursday, after withdrawals by candidates, he said.
