86.20% turnout in calm & peaceful Sagar bypoll : Fate of Jana, Bhagat sealed

Hyderabad: Polling for by-elections to the Nagarjuna Sagar Assembly constituency in 346 polling stations ended peacefully on Saturday. According to official figures, the voter turnout was 86.20 per cent which is little bit lower than the 2018 Assembly elections where the vote percentage was 86.48 per cent.

Both the TRS and the Congress party claimed that the high voter turnout would be advantageous for them. While the TRS said that their candidate N Bhagat would win with a majority of over 30,000 votes, the Congress party feels that veteran leader K Jana Reddy would win by a majority of about 5,000 votes. The BJP too exuded confidence that their candidate would win. There are as many as 41 candidates in the fray.

Long queues were seen at polling booths from 7 am onwards. After 12 noon, the polling percentage had slowed down due to the scorching sun. The polling time was extended up to 6 pm for general voters and it continued up to 7 pm as the Elections Commission of India (ECI) has extended the polling time by two hours in compliance with Covid-19 guidelines. The Covid-19 positive voters were allowed to cast their vote after 6 pm.

Polling was delayed for a few minutes due to technical problems at polling booth 137 at Thotipeta in Tirumalgiri(Sagar) mandal.

However, no untoward incident was reported in any Assembly segment. Officials said that Covid safety norms were followed strictly in the conduct of election at all polling stations. Police forces were deployed at all identified sensitive polling booths.

The Election Observers conducted surprise visits and reviewed the smooth conduct of elections.

Telangana State Chief Electoral Officer Shashank Goel visited a polling station at Pylon colony in Nagarjuna Sagar and examined the polling process. He has also expressed satisfaction over measures taken up as per the Covid-19 norms.

All the contestants, including TRS candidate Nomula Bhagath, Congress candidate K Jana Reddy and BJP candidate Dr P Ravi Kumar Naik have exercised their voting rights. Bhagath exercised his franchise at 168/A polling booth in a mandal parishad upper primary school at Ibrahimpatnam.