73.39% voter turnout in NTR district

Vijayawada: Barringsome stray incidents, the polling for Vijayawada Lok Sabha constituency and seven Assembly constituencies in NTR district ended peacefully on Monday.

In NTR district, the voter turnout was 73.39 per cent. Tiruvuru constituency recorded the highest percentage of voting of 79.28. Jaggaiahpet 78.20 per cent, Mylavaram 78 per cent, Nandigama 72.72 per cent and Vijayawada East 69.11 per cent. The voter turnout in Vijayawada West constituency was 68.30 per cent and Vijayawada Central 68.15 per cent. Vijayawada Central constituency recorded the lowest turnout in the district. In the 2019 elections, the erstwhile Krishna district voting percentage was 78.94.

Long queue lines were seen at many polling centres in the district due to rush of voters to exercise their franchise in the morning. Keeping in view the scorching heat and harsh weather conditions in the summer, the voters decided to cast their votes as early as possible in the morning. This resulted in very long queues.

The voters had to wait one to two hours at most places to cast their votes. The voters, mainly women, waited with a lot of patience to exercise their franchise. But elderly women faced problems as they could not stand for a long time.

The Election Commission has arranged drinking water, tents and chairs for the convenience of voters. Adequate police personnel were drafted to ensure peaceful polling in the district. The total number of voters in NTR district is 17.04 lakh and 1,792 polling stations were arranged in the district.

District Election Officer and Collector S Dilli Rao along with Commissioner of Police PHD Ramakrishna monitored the polling since morning.