WARANGA/KHAMMAM: Barring stray incidents of minor clashes, polling for the 59 wards in the Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation (GWMC) has passed off peacefully here on Sunday. With the total turnout of 3,87,873 voters against the total registered 6,44,098, the poll percentage stood at 60.3. Khammam too registered a peaceful polling with 67.68 pc voters turning up to exercise their franchise.
In Warangal, though the voters from the 42 merged villages have reportedly showed enthusiasm by participating in the polling, the voters in the downtown areas seemed to have not evinced much interest in it.
At 56th ward, followers of ruling TRS candidate Kandula Chandramohan and the followers of independent candidate Nagalla Jhansilaxmi clashed when TRS candidate’s associates allegedly tried to distribute cash to voters. However, police dispersed both the groups. The followers of the independent candidate have alleged that police meted out a partial treatement.
Meanwhile, unruly scenes have also been witnessed at 44th division where the followers of TRS candidate Anisetti Murali and BJP candidate Santhosh Reddy and followers of an independent candidate also clashed over alleged cash distribution.
In Khammam, some alleged that activists of TRS resorted to rigging by allegedly collecting voter ID cards of others.
On the other hand, in Warangal, scores of hijras have cast their vote at several polling stations in the city. The number of voters registered under the ‘others’ box is 119.
Meanwhile, Deputy CM Kadiyam Srihari has cast his vote at St Thomas School in Hanamkonada, MLA Vinay Bhaskar at Waddepally government school and Parkal MLA Challa Dharma Reddy, joint collector PJ Patil and Warangal rural SP AK Jha have at their respective polling stations