Nizamabad bypoll for Council ends

Nizamabad/ Hyderabad: The bypoll to the Nizamabad Local Authorities MLC seat in Telangana ended on a peaceful note on Friday. The counting of votes would take place on October 12. This election has assumed importance since K Kavitha, daughter of the Chief Minister and former Nizamabad MP is in the fray.

It is said that out of total of 824 votes, 821 votes were polled. The elections were conducted keeping in view the corona pandemic situation. Twenty-four voters came to the polling booth in PPE kits to exercise their franchise since they were tested positive. Other voters had come with masks and gloves on as per the directions of the election commission. Arrangements for hand sanitisation and thermal screening of voters was done at the entrance of the polling station. Markings were made in the polling booths to maintain physical distancing. The polling staff applied indelible ink on the fingers of the voters.

The election personnel were also wearing masks, gloves and frequently used had sanitizers. Medical team was also stationed in the polling station stocked with medicines in case of emergency.

The public representatives came in batches to vote in the election. The TRS public representatives, including ZPTCs and MPTCs, who were camping in Hyderabad were taken to Nizamabad in buses. The results will be declared on October 12.

Speaker P Srinivas Reddy, Minister V Prashanth Reddy, party MLAs MD Shakeel, Gampa Goverdhan, B Ganesh Gupta and other important leaders also cast their votes in their respective divisions. Interestingly, Bodhan MLA Shakeel raised slogans saying that Kavitha was 'future minister'.

TRS leaders claimed that 90 per cent votes were in favour of Kavitha as they said that she would get more than 700 votes. Most of the public representatives in local bodies in Nizamabad district belong to TRS and several Congress and BJP corporators had joined the pink party before the election date, party leaders said. The election necessitated following the disqualification of member R Bhoopati Reddy.