Polling for the 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in Telangana was conducted peacefully on Monday with no untoward incident being reported from any part of the State. Repolling was not ordered not even in one of the 35,809 polling stations.
The huge turnout of voters likely to be close to 70% — compared to 62.77% seen in 2019 — has left the three main contenders, ruling Congress, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) guessing about the prospects of their respective candidates in the election which is likely to witness triangular contests in some of the constituencies.
Voting started on a sedate note at 7 a.m. with just 9.7% of voters exercising their franchise in the first two hours, but picked up momentum over the next four hours crossing 40% by 1 p.m. with some of the constituencies reporting over 50% voting by then. The tempo continued till 5 p.m. when the overall poll percentage reached 61.23%.
The interest expressed by the people in casting their vote could be seen from the fact that several constituencies witnessed over 65% polling with five of them crossing the 70% mark. “There were long queues at around 1,400 out of the 35,809 polling stations by 6 p.m., the scheduled closing time of voting. We are allowing those standing in queues to exercise their franchise,” Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj said.
There were no problems on the law and order front. In all, 38 first information reports (FIRs) were registered, including those against political leaders, for different reasons, he said refusing to elaborate when asked about the party-wise details of the complaints.
According to information received till late evening, Bhongir Lok Sabha constituency registered the highest polling of 72.34% till 5 p.m. Polling crossed 71% in Medak and Zaheerabad constituencies during the same period. A little over 70% voting was reported from Khammam and Nalgonda constituencies closely followed by Adilabad (69.81%), Karimnagar (68.4%), Mahbubabad (68.6%), Mahbubnagar (68.4%) and Nizamabad (68.39%) by 5 p.m.
Hyderabad had registered the lowest poll percentage of 39.17 by 5 p.m. while Secunderabad saw 42.48% and Malkajgiri 46.27% polling.
The percentage was expected to increase once voting in the remaining 1,400 polling stations was completed. Polling in 13 assembly constituencies falling under five Lok Sabha seats — Adilabad, Peddapalle, Warangal, Mahbubabad and Khammam — categorised as left-wing extremist areas concluded by 4 p.m. while it continued well beyond 6 p.m. in several of the remaining 106 Assembly segments.
Mr. Vikas Raj said the deposition of election material, including electronic voting machines (EVMs), at the 44 strong rooms located in different parts of the State was likely to be completed by late Monday night or early Tuesday morning. The counting of votes is scheduled to take place on June 4.
