A total of 15,13,094 voters would decide the fate of 23 candidates in the fray for Khammam Lok Sabha seat in Thursday’s elections.

The polling would determine the electoral fortunes of the political bigwigs, former Union Minister Renuka Chowdhury of Congress and former MP Nama Nageswara Rao of Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), who are locked in a keen contest for the high-stakes seat. The CPI backed CPI (M) candidate B. Venkat is among those testing their luck in the high-profile constituency, considered the political nerve centre of south Telangana.

Tight security arrangements have been made in and around the 1,798 polling stations spread across seven Assembly segments.

Additional security has been provided to 171 critical polling stations to prevent untoward incidents during the polling. A total of 7,930 staff have been deployed for the election duty, sources said. Arrangements are in place for web-casting, videography and offline recording of the election process in the polling booths to ensure free and fair elections.

Special arrangements have been made for enabling a total of 35,485 physically-challenged voters and 14,799 elderly voters cast their votes. A total of 1,112 wheelchairs have been kept ready for use at the polling stations.

Meanwhile, Collector and Returning Officer R.V. Karnan inspected the distribution centre at Wyra on Wednesday and monitored distribution of EVMs to the presiding officers.