All 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana are going to the polls on Thursday. As many as 443 candidates candidates are in the fray but the key contest is between Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS), Congress and the BJP.
The Election Commission has identified 13 Assembly segments as Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected areas and polling will end at 4 p.m. in these places. For the rest of the State, polling is scheduled to end at 5 p.m.
Perhaps for the first time in the history of Indian elections, 12 EVMs will be used in each booth in Nizamabad, where 185 candidates, including more than 170 farmers, are contesting.
Here are the live updates:
Polling peaceful in Telangana
Polling started peacefully in 16 of the 17 Lok Sabha constituencies across Telangana at 7 am.
Voting will start in Nizamabad at 8 am after completion of mock polling. The constituency has a record 185 contestants and the Election Commission is conducting polls through EVMs for such large number of candidates.
As many as 443 candidates are in the fray in 17 constituencies and 2.96 crore voters are expected to exercise their franchise in the elections through 34,604 polling stations. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and his wife are expected to exercise their franchise at Chintamadaka in Gajwel around 10.30 am.
Reports from the districts indicated that polling at two polling booths in Tara Degree College, Sangareddy was delayed by 20 minutes as error occurred in EVMs.
Glimpses from voting across the State
District control room monitoring sectoral officers and webcasting in Telangana on Wednesday | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
A woman police help an elderly woman to a polling station at Sangareddy, Telangana | Photo Credit: Mohd Arif
High alert in Manthani, Peddapalli
The police have sounded high alert in the erstwhile naxalite stronghold of Manthani and Peddapalli Assembly segments for the elections to Peddapalli parliamentary constituency after the Maoists killed a BJP legislator and four security personnel by triggering a landmine in Dantewada region of neighbouring Chhattisgarh on Tuesday.
Incidentally, there was no naxalite movement in the region for the past several years. However, the fresh incident of triggering a landmine in the adjoining State abutting the forests of Mahadevpur mandal in Manthani Assembly segment has become a cause for concern for the police personnel for the peaceful conduct of elections in the forest dominated Manthani and some parts of Peddapalli Assembly segment.