Thousands turn up in Telangana polling booths

HYDERABAD: Thousands of people turned up at polling booths spread across 17 Parliamentary constituencies across Telangana, in an election which could decide the fate of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s ambition to cobble together a federal front.

Around 1.5 lakh polling staff, 20,000 volunteers and 145 companies of central paramilitary forces and 55,000 Telangana police personnel are on poll duty. Around three lakh staff, both civil and police, have been deployed for the election arrangements in the state.

Elderly couples and several women with kids were seen at polling stations at 7am in the morning.

“Voting started on time at 7am in many places, unlike assembly polls. We are hoping that people will come out and vote in big numbers as the day progresses,” Telangana chief electoral officer, Rajat Kumar, told TOI.

Barring few complaints of EVMs not working and other technical glitches, polling began peacefully in all parts of India’s newest state of Telangana.

Several Tollywood movie stars, including Alu Arjun and Amala Akkineni voted early in the morning.

“Today is the one day, which will decide how the 1,825 days will be. So please cast your vote,” Arjun told TOI.

Telugu actress Shilpa Chakravarthy and her husband were seen casting their vote at a polling booth, while superstar Chiranjeevi and his actor son Ram Charan, known for the remake of Bollywood movie Zanzeer, cast their votes at a Jubillee Hills polling station.

First-time voters were overjoyed after casting their ballots, while many women were seen carrying their children to booths. Among them was a nine-month pregnant woman Naga Maheswari, standing in a queue to cast vote. The lady postponed her hospitalization for delivery so she could vote. “I am heading straight to the hospital from the polling centre,” she said.

Some people complained that several polling stations don’t have disabled-friendly facilities. A Laxmi Narayana, 89, who voted at MNR high school, in the city’s Ashok Nagar region was unhappy. “Arrangements are not senior citizen friendly at all, Walking from the entrance to the booth was a herculean task,” said Narayana.

The EVM stopped working at the Kalyan Nagar festival park polling station, a few minutes after polling started, with officials trying to replace it.

“Initially there were a few incidents of glitches in the EVMS at few parts of the state, but it was immediately attended. So far, polling has been smooth and incident free,” said additional director general of police (law and order) Jitender.

Dozens of voters got confused between two polling stations — ZP High School for boys and girls at the same location with the centres being 500 meters apart and most of them turning up at wrong centres.

A polling station at Picket in Secunderabad cantonment wore a deserted look even after an hour and half after polling started. Only 10 out of 1100 voters exercised their franchise with authorities hoping that voting would improve in the afternoon. On The other side, a polling station saw long queues in Gunrock in the same constituency.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president and candidate from Nalgonda constituency N Uttam Kumar Reddy, cast his vote at EV College polling booth in Kodad. Reddy said the illumination was poor in the polling booth and he had received calls from voters from other booths, complaining of poor illumination.

“Election Commission should immediately improve the illumination facilities in the polling booths in Nalgonda constituency,” he added. Mock polling began at 5.30 am on Thursday with actual polling beginning at 7.00 am and plan to end by 5.00 pm.

In Nizamabad, where record 185 candidates are contesting, including 175 farmers, mock polling began at 5.30 am and actual polling starting at 8.00 am. In left-wing affected areas, polling began at 7.00 am with authorities planning to end an hour earlier by 4 pm. “If the voter has an EPIC card but the name is not in the list, he or she will not be eligible for voting,” said chief electoral officer Rajat Kumar.