Polling began in Telangana at 7 am where the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is facing a resurgent Congress-led People’s Front in its bid for a second term
Polling began in Telangana at 7 am on Friday, December 11, amid tight security to elect a new Assembly. The polling will be held from 7 am to 5 p.m. in 106 constituencies, while in 13 Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected constituencies, the polling will conclude at 4 pm.
However, voting is yet to begin at the polling station at Hyderabad GHMC Indoor Stadium, Amberpet, due to a technical problem.
Around 2.8 crore voters will decide the fate of 1,821 candidates in the first election after Telangana was formed.
The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is facing a resurgent Congress-led People’s Front in its bid for a second term.
The TRS government dissolved the Assembly about eight months ahead of the schedule in the hope of taking the Opposition parties by surprise but the Congress threw a surprise by coming up with an alliance in a bid to oust the ruling party.
For the 119-member Telangana assembly where the Congress has tied up with rivals TDP, CPI and Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS), a new party floated by M. Kodandaram, who was once Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s friend in the Telangana movement.
Telangana has 51,796 polling stations, an increase of 14.25% over the previous election in 2013.
Several ministers have already cast their votes. State Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao casts his vote in polling booth no. 102 in Siddipet constituency.