Telangana Assembly polls: Vote-day today; 2.8 crore voters hold the key

Hyderabad: Some 2.80 crore voters will decide who among the two main contenders — the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), or the Congress-led People’s Front — will form the next government in Telangana state.

For the first Assembly elections of Telangana state, polling will be held on Friday from 7 am to 5 pm. For 13 Assembly constituencies the polling will be held from 7 am to 4 pm in view of the security problem.

Some 1,821 candidates are contesting 119 Assembly constituencies. The TRS is contesting all 119 seats and the BJP is contesting 118 seats. Among the alliance parties, the Congress is contesting 99 seats, the Telugu Desam, 13, the Telangana Jana Samiti, eight, and the Communist Party of India (CPI), three. Malkajgiri Assembly constituency has the most number of candidates (42) and Bansuwada the least at just six.

In 25 Assembly constituencies up to 15 candidates are contesting. In 78 constituencies, 16 to 31 candidates are battling it out and 16 constituencies have more than 32 candidates in the fray.

The main fight is between the ruling TRS and the Congress-led People’s Front. In some constituencies the BJP and the Bahujan Left Front (BLF) led by the CPM are giving a fight to the TRS and Front candidates. In these constituencies the BJP and BLF may change the fate of the TRS and Front candidates.