The by-election to Nandyal Assembly constituency on Wednesday witnessed a huge voter turnout with the percentage of voters who exercised their franchise placed at close to 80%.
According to Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwarlal, the polling percentage was 77.66 by 5 p.m. with an hour still to go and the final number of voters was expected to exceed 80% by the end of voting. The constituency had registered 76% voting in 2009 and 71% in 2014.
“This is the highest polling percentage witnessed in the last two decades,” the CEO said. The huge voter turnout reportedly left the contesting parties, the Telugu Desam Party and the YSR Congress leaders, guessing about the results.
Voters were still waiting in long queues in some of the polling stations and the election authority let all those who stood in queue by 6 p.m. to cast their vote. Polling was by and large peaceful barring some stray incidents, including the death of an armed reserve constable Umamaheswara Rao due to cardiac arrest. The election authority directed the State government to pay compensation of ₹10 lakh or salary for 20 months, whichever is the highest, to the family of the deceased.
The election witnessed the deployment of voter verified paper audit trail for the first time and the machines put in place worked efficiently with only 14 of the 255 replaced due to technical problems noticed during the mock poll conducted ahead of the voting on Wednesday. There was also no truth in the reports that the ruling TDP and the opposition YSRC, who took the poll as a prestige issue, spent over ₹200 crore for the by-poll. “The election authority seized ₹1.2 crore in cash,” he said. He said the counting process would commence at 8 a.m. on August 28 and the result was likely to be announced in the afternoon. Replying to queries, he said a case has been registered against Saskhi media house, owned by YSRC president Jaganmohan Reddy, with the Central Crime Station police on Tuesday. The channel had telecast a debate which could influence voters in the by-poll in spite of the strict warning issued by the EC.