Another low: Hyderabadis stay away from poll, again

HYDERABAD: Hyderabadis once again chose not to cast their vote in large numbers on Thursday during Telangana’s first ever Lok Sabha election after it was carved out of Andhra Pradesh in 2014.

While Hyderabad constituency recorded an abysmal 39.49% voting, Secunderabad fared marginally better at 44.9%. Hyderabad district recorded just 42.2% voting. This dragged down Telangana’s overall voting percentage to just 60.57%. The turnout figures are preliminary estimates and the final figures will be known only by Friday, election officials said.



In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Telangana had recorded 72% voting and both Hyderabad and Secunderabad had recorded more than 53% voter turnout.

Telangana chief electoral officer Rajat Kumar told TOI, “Polling went on smoothly and there was not even one law and order situation.”

Rajat Kumar further said: “The decrease in poll percentage may be attributed to delinking of assembly polls with the Lok Sabha polls. Usually, when there are simultaneous polls, more voters turn out.”

Kumar added, “Hyderabad has a history of low turnout. We couldn’t touch 50% in Assembly and corporation elections but there are people in queues (at 5 pm) so percentage may increase,”

He said that so far the ECI has not received any requests seeking repolls. “We have received complaints from Congress regarding Chevella and Bhuvanagiri constituencies regarding manipulation of votes and agents not being allowed to enter the polling booths. The returning officers verified and found that they are not true. Congress leader Gudur Narayana Reddy complained that the vote in EVM and VVPAT are showing differently in Serilingamplaly of Chevella. But our RO enquiry found that there is nothing like this.”

Former MLC and political analyst Professor K Nageshwar said that the low turnout was due to lack of competition. “There is no big contests. If there was a contest, both sides would have mobilised forces and the voting percentage would have gone up. Competitive mobilisation of voters by parties or groups was not seen. With TRS having the upper hand, there was no polarised fight. In Andhra, the fight was too close so there was a huge turnout. Hyderabad witnessed low turnout as several voters having duplicate votes in Telangana and AP went to Andhra to vote,” he said.