DUBBAKA: Polling to Telangana's Dubbaka Assembly commenced at 8 am and 12.74 per cent voters exercised their franchise in the first hour of voting itself. The polling will continue till 6 pm.
Though 23 candidates are in the fray, the main fight will be among S Sujatha of the ruling TRS, M Raghunandan Rao of BJP and Ch Srinivas Reddy of Congress.
Much heat was generated in the last couple of days, as all the three major political parties took the election as a prestigious issue. The officials made elaborate arrangements for the free and fair poll.
The by-election was necessitated after the demise of sitting TRS MLA S Ramalinga Reddy. TRS candidate Sujatha is the wife of late Reddy. The ruling party is confident of retaining the seat.
TRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao did not even campaign for the election. On the other hand, the BJP is determined to win the poll and has made all-out efforts to prove that it is the alternative to TRS in Telangana. The counting will take place on November 10.