NIZAMABAD, KARIMNAGAR, MAHBUBNAGAR, WARANGAL, SANGAREDDY, NALGONDA:
Barring an odd incident here and there, polling for the State Assembly elections was a smooth sail across Telangana on Friday.
Though there were high expectations on Hyderabadis to change their so far abysmal voter turnouts, the city remained consistent, recording a poor 50 per cent—a further drop from 2014’s 53 per cent.
What’s worse, of those who did make it to the polling booths, many had to leave without being able to exercise their franchise as their names were missing from the voters list. The thousands of voters who were denied their right to vote took to Twitter to vent out their disappointment to the Election Commission.
Meanwhile, people thronged polling stations across the State well before 7 am when voting began. Election officers supervised the entire process to ensure that no untoward incident took place.
Nizamabad district recorded a voter turnout of 78.70 per cent. When polling ended at 5 pm, Armoor reportedly registered the highest voter turnout—72.15 per cent—among the six constituencies in the district.
Officials at a polling booth in Nizamabad said though the polling percentage was below 8 per cent in the morning, it picked up by evening.
Contrary to expectations, voter turnout was moderate in Boath, Khanapur, Nirmal and Mudhole constituencies.
Voting machines conked out at several polling booths, but electors were seen peacefully waiting in queues to cast their vote till they were rectified.
Meanwhile, people from newly-formed gram panchayats were in a fix as their names were in voters’ list of different gram panchayats.
Elderly voters, including a few nonagenarians, were provided transportation to the polling stations.
After witnessing weeks of hectic campaigning and leaders flying in and out of constituencies in Warangal recorded a moderate voter turnout.
According to official figures, Warangal West recorded only 54 per cent voter turnout. In united Medak district, Gajwel constituency reported 82.5 per cent voter turnout; Siddipet, 80 per cent; and Medak; 85 per cent.