Polling Underway in Telangana Municipal Elections

Hyderabad: Polling was underway on Wednesday in elections to 116 municipalities and seven municipal corporations in Telangana, a three-way contest between the ruling Congress, and opposition parties, BJP and BRS.Polling began at 7 am and would continue till 5 pm.

A total of 52.17 lakh voters, including 25.50 lakh men and 26.67 lakh women, are eligible to cast their votes.

The Telangana State Election Commission said 10,719 candidates are contesting for 2,569 wards in 116 municipalities. In the seven municipal corporations, 2,225 candidates are in the fray across 412 wards.

The SEC has said over 41,000 polling personnel have been deployed, and 16,382 ballot boxes would be used for the election.

Counting of votes is scheduled for February 13.

After a major success in the gram panchayat elections in December last year, the ruling Congress aims to consolidate its position as the dominant player in state politics, while the BJP hopes to emerge as a credible alternative to both the Congress and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

Having suffered setbacks in the 2023 assembly polls and 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BRS came up with a decent performance in the gram panchayat polls and is keen to make substantial gains in the municipal elections to reverse its fortunes in the state.

Observing that the Congress government has implemented several welfare programmes, including the distribution of fine variety rice under the public distribution system (PDS), the Arogya Sri health scheme, free travel for women in state-run buses, and LPG cylinders for the poor at Rs 500, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Monday promised to prepare master plans for the development of every municipality.