The southern state of Telangana goes to polls on Thursday, November 30, following a high-octane campaign that witnessed national leaders pitching for their respective parties and candidates. The stage is all set for polling to elect 119 members to the new Telangana Legislative Assembly.
Voters would exercise their franchise in 35,655 polling stations set up across the state. There are 3.26 crore eligible voters who will decide the fate of 2,290 candidates in fray. Polling would be held from 7 AM to 5 PM in 106 constituencies and from 7 AM to 4 PM in 13 Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas.
Campaigning for the Telangana elections ended at 5 pm on Tuesday. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC have been promulgated across the state, following the silence period.
Prominent candidates in fray are Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who is contesting from two constituencies – Gajwel and Kamareddy, his minister-son K T Rama Rao, state Congress president A Revanth Reddy and BJP Lok Sabha members Bandi Sanjay Kumar as well as D Arvind.
Revanth Reddy will take on CM KCR from Kamareddy, while in Gajwel, BJP has deployed Eatala Rajender against the CM.
The ruling BRS is putting up a fight in all 119 seats. According to the seat-sharing agreement, BJP and actor Pawan Kalyan-headed Jana Sena are contesting in 111 and 8 seats respectively, while Congress has given one seat to its ally CPI, and fighting from 118 others.
Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM has put up candidates in nine segments in the city.
As of November 28, law enforcement agencies have seized cash, gold, liquor, freebies among others all worth about Rs 737 crore in the state ever since the MCC came into force.
The EC has ordered all private establishments including IT firms to declare a holiday on November 30 to enable employees to exercise their franchise.
More than 2.5 lakh staff will be engaged in poll duties for the assembly elections, Chief Electoral officer Vikas Raj said. For the first time in Telangana, home voting facility was provided to the persons with disabilities and voters above 80 years.
The BRS is trying to retain power for a third consecutive term, while the Congress has been fighting tooth and nail to wrest power from it. The BJP too has gone all guns blazing to get a foothold in the youngest state in the country.