Political prospects sealed

Hyderabad: Barring a few stray incidents, voting has concluded on a peaceful note in Telangana State registering a turnout of above 67 per cent voters on Friday. The updated reports say that the highest turnout of nearly 85 per cent was reported in Siddipet Assembly constituency from where TRS senior leader T Harish Rao is in the fray.

The exact poll percentage will be known late in the night as the district election authorities are busy compiling the data being collected from all polling booths in the 31 districts of the T state. Polling started on a dull note in the morning. A mere 15 per cent polling was reported till 10 am and it picked up in the afternoon. Reports said that polling percentage has gone up to 56.17 per cent by 3 pm. 

Tentative reports said that Hyderabad district reported 50.06 per cent vote as against 52.99 per cent in 2014 elections. As many as 1,821 candidates, including a transgender are in the fray in the election. TRS and Congress-led People's Front are the main political parties fighting the elections. Counting of votes would be taken up on December 11.

Polling in the 13 sensitive assembly constituency came to an end at 4 pm and in the rest of the segments, voters are allowed to exercise their franchise till 5 pm. Telangana and AP Governor ESL Narasimhan, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy, BJP state unit chief K Laxman, AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi and film stars – Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, Junior NTR and Bahubali film director SS Rajamouli and others cast their votes in their respective assembly constituencies.

KCR exuded confidence that people will give a big mandate to TRS recognising his government’s efforts to develop the state. TPCC working president A Revnath Reddy said that KCR’s party will collapse like a pack of cards and the People’s Front will emerge victorious.

Owaisi said, “I am fully confident that we will be successful in every seat. I hope the people of Hyderabad, and people of Telangana will vote for us.”  Telangana Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar said that the polling ended on a peaceful note.  He admitted voters at several places complained that their names were missing from the voters' list. In some segments, voters staged protests after officials did not allow them to exercise their franchise in the absence of voter slips.