Polling underway for 119 assembly seats in Telangana

Polling is underway to elect 119 members of the Telangana Legislative Assembly with voters queuing up to exercise their franchise amid tight security on Thursday Voting began at 7 AM in the 35655 polling stations across the state officials saidPolling would be held till 5 PM in 106 constituencies while it would conclude at 4 PM in 13 Left Wing Extremism LWE affected seats There are 326 crore eligible voters including 16313268 male voters and 16302261 female electors in the stateAs many as 2290 contestants are in the fray for the upcoming elections including Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao his ministerson K T Rama Rao state Congress president A Revanth Reddy and BJP Lok Sabha members Bandi Sanjay Kumar and D ArvindThe model code of conduct came into force in the state after the Election Commission announced the schedule on October 9 BRS has fielded candidates in all 119 seats As per the seat sharing agreement BJP and actor Pawan Kalyanheaded Jana Sena are contesting in 111 and 8 seats respectivelyThe Congress has given one seat to its ally CPI and is fighting from 118 others Asaduddin Owaisiled AIMIM has put up candidates in nine segments in the city More than 25 lakh staff will be engaged in poll duties for the assembly elections Chief Electoral officer Vikas Raj has saidAbout 77000 security personnel comprising state police and Home Guards drawn from the state and neighbouring states besides 375 companies of Central Armed Police Forces CAPF have been deployed across the state as part of the security arrangements for the electionFor the first time in Telangana home voting facility was provided to persons with disabilities and voters above 80 years As on November 29 law enforcement agencies have seized cash gold liquor freebies among others all worth about Rs 745 crore in the state ever since the model code of conduct came into force in the state on October 9 an official release saidThe EC has ordered all private establishments including IT firms to declare holiday on November 30 to enable employees to exercise their franchise The counting of votes will be taken up on December 3Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya his Tripura counterpart N Indrasena Reddy Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao Union Minister and state BJP president G Kishan Reddy are among the prominent leaders who will cast their votes in the elections CM Chandrasekhar Rao would exercise his franchise at his native Chintamadaka village in Siddipet district official sources saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever