Hyderabad: About 72.5 per cent of the voters turned out for the first elections in Telangana after the state bifurcation on Wednesday. Barring a few stray incidents, the elections for 119 Assembly seats, including 10 affected by Maoist activity, and 17 Lok Sabha constituencies went off peacefully.
The voter turnout, the final figures are yet to be released was an improvement from 69.68 and 70.77 per cent recorded in 2009 and 2004 respectively.
An estimated 2.1 crore of the total 2.81 crore voters cast their ballot, according to preliminary figures. “It’s a good turn-out,” state Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwar Lal said. The highest turnout was registered in Adilabad and Nizamabad at 78 per cent.
In all, 583 EVMs were replaced on account of technical problems, which is less than one per cent of the total, he said. A total of 1,669 candidates, including TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao, Telangana Congress chief Ponnala Lakshmaiah and state BJP chief G. Kishan Reddy, apart from key Opposition leaders are in the fray for 119 Assembly seats while 265 contested for the 17 Parliamentary seats including, MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, several Union ministers and some MPs.
Voters in three villages, including in Bayarram and Yellandu constituencies boycotted voting as roads, water and other basic facilities had not been provided to them.
DGP B. Prasada Rao said over 15 cases of violence were reported during the polls. These included a case against TD nominee B. Pratap Reddy and 13 others, for assaulting a cameraman at Gajwel, and against Mr Prabhakar Rao and others of the CPI for assaulting a constable at Khammam. TD’s Kodangal nominee Revanth Reddy along with his followers clashed with TRS workers.
A case was also filed against Congress MP and Amberpet Assembly nominee V. Hanumantha Rao, along with corporator Diddi Rambabu on a complaint by BJP activist Sri Sagar at Barkatpura. A complaint was filed against Congress LB Nagar candidate D. Sudhir Reddy for allegedly slapping a TD activist.
