Telangana set for Lok Sabha polls today

Hyderabad: The stage is set for the polling in 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana which had witnessed a high decibel campaign by political leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP chief J P Nadda, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and a host of other top leaders.

More than three crore voters will exercise their franchise on Monday. The Election Commission has also made arrangements to conduct the by-poll for the Secunderabad (Cantonment) Assembly seat to be held on Monday.

A contingent of 73,000 civil police personnel, 500 sections of the state special police, 164 companies of central armed police forces, three companies of Tamil Nadu police, 2,088 officials from other departments and 7,000 home guards have been deployed as part of security measures, the Telangana DGP office said. All vehicles carrying EVMs and VVPATs are fitted with GPS systems and provided invariably with armed security by central forces.

After the stormy campaign by all top leaders, the weather office predicts stormy weather on Monday. The political parties feel that the cool weather will help in larger turnout of voters but at the same time they pray that the rains should not be heavy.

As many as 625 candidates, including Union Minister and Telangana BJP president G Kishan Reddy, party's national general secretary Bandi Sanjay Kumar and senior leader Eatala Rajender, Konda Vishveswar Reddy, Sunitha Mahender Reddy and Kasani Gyaneshwar are among the important candidates in the fray. Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency would be attracting greater interest as the BJP had fielded a political novice but a bold and enthusiastic woman K Madhavi Lata who had taken up a spirited campaign and drew national attention against AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi a four-time MP who has been winning from here continuously.The former IPS officer RS Praveen Kumar and sitting MP Nama Nageswar Rao, among others, are in the poll fray from former Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao-led BRS.