Warangal: Continuing the tradition of turning out in large numbers to exercise their franchise in the Warangal Lok Sabha constituency, 68.59 per cent of the eligible voters cast their votes for the bypoll on Saturday. In the 2014 general election for the same constituency, 76.38 per cent of the electorate had exercised their right.
Except for minor incidents, polling was peaceful, with a good number of people seen waiting patiently in queues to cast their voters. polling picked pace by afternoon. At 9 am, 9.5 per cent of the votes were cast, at 11 am 27.69 per cent, and by 1 pm, 44 per cent.
Later, at 3 pm, voting shot up to 56.81 per cent and reached 68.59 per cent by 5 pm. At some places, the EVMs developed technical glitches, forcing officials to replace them and continue voting.
At Wardhannapet, TRS workers objected to Congress candidate Sarve Satyanarayana entering a polling booth and appealing to voters to vote for him.
At Atmakur, Congress workers were involved in an argument with the police there for allowing Parkal MLA Challa Dharma Reddy to enter a polling station but stopping them from doing the same.
At CK Thanda in Thorrur, people decided to boycott the election, alleging that they have been neglected since the past many years depriving them of proper road connectivity, streetlights and other infrastructure.
On coming to know of this, district collector and returning officer Vakati Karuna convinced them to cast their votes. The EVMs have been shifted to the Enumamula market yard where the votes will be counted.
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