Lok Sabha polls held peacefully in Karimnagar

Karimnagar: The elections for 17th Lok Sabha were held peacefully in Karimnagar and Peddapalli Parliament constituencies of united Karimnagar district without any untoward incidents on Thursday.

The district administration made elaborate arrangements for conducting the elections in a peaceful atmosphere and provided all basic facilities at the 2,281 polling stations established at various locations across the district.

In Karimnagar, the TRS LS candidate B Vinod Kumar along with his wife casted his vote at the polling station set up at Urdu Medium High School while Congress LS candidate P Prabhakar along with his family members casted his vote at United English Medium High School situated in Kashmirgadda polling station and BJP LS candidate utilised his voting right by casting his vote at Sadhana High School situated in Jyothinagar polling station. The trio, after casting their vote, appealed the people to utilise their voting right provided by the Constitution of India.

In Peddapalli, TRS and Congress LS candidates couldn't cast their vote as they are non-locals and B Venkatesh Netha of TRS casted his vote in Mancherial district and Congress LS candidate Dr A Chandrashekar utilised his voting right in Hyderabad.

Only BJP LS candidate S Kumar, a local candidate and native Godavarikhani, was able to cast his vote in Peddapalli district.

Meanwhile, Karimnagar MLA Gangula Kamalakar and Health Minister Eatala Rajender utilised their voting right in Karimnagar and Huzurabad respectively. When the villagers of Ayyaropalli of Sircilla district boycotted the elections opposing the merger of their village with Vemulwada Municipality, Joint Collector Yasmine Basha visited the village and assured the villagers that the issue would be resolved and explained them about the advantage of voting. Heeding to the JC's request, the villagers casted their votes.

District Collector Sarfaraz Ahmed and Commissioner of Police VB Kamalasan Reddy casted their votes at the polling station at Municipal Office in Karimnagar.

Speaking on the occasion, Collector Sarfaraz Ahmed said that the polling process, which started at 7 am, went on a smooth note across the district without any untoward incidents.

In some places, problems with EVMs were reported that were immediately resolved by the sectoral officers with the help of technical staff. Compared to previous elections, voting percentage in Karimnagar district has increased enormously. 68 per cent of voting recorded in Karimnagar, while 59.24 per cent was recorded in Peddapalli, the Collector added.