At the end of the largely peaceful election day, the southern state of Telangana ended polling with a voter turnout of 70.60 per cent. Voting in all the 119 assembly segments began at 7 AM while it concluded at 4 PM in 13 Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected constituencies, In the rest 106 others, people were allowed to vote till 5 pm.
After the poll-bound southern state of Telangana witnessed a high-decibel campaign, the much awaited voting finally ended for 119 assembly seats on Thursday with an overall voter turnover of 70.64 percent. The ruling BRS this time is eyeing to retain power for a third consecutive term in the state, while the opposition Congress mounted an all-out effort to unseat the incumbent.
Voters exercised their franchise in 35,655 polling stations set up across the state. There were 3.26 crore eligible voters in the state. As many as 2,290 contestants are in the fray this year including Chief Minister KCR, his minister-son K T Rama Rao, state Congress president A Revanth Reddy and BJP Lok Sabha members Bandi Sanjay Kumar and D Arvind.
According to Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj, over 2.5 lakh staff were engaged in poll duties for the assembly elections,
The counting of votes will be taken up on December 3.
BRS fielded candidates in all 119 seats. As per the seat-sharing agreement, BJP and actor Pawan Kalyan-headed Jana Sena were contesting in 111 and 8 seats respectively, while Congress had given one seat to its ally CPI, and fighting from 118 others.
CM KCR was contesting from two segments-- Gajwel and Kamareddy. He represents Gajwel in the outgoing Legislative Assembly. For BRS, CM KCR addressed as many as 96 public meetings during the campaign.
BRS working president and KCR's son K T Rama Rao also campaigned extensively for BRS.The party's campaign centered around the previous Congress regime's failures and ongoing welfare measures for farmers and women and other sections of society. Rao also highlighted his struggle to achieve Telangana statehood.
The BJP also left no stone unturned to come to power for the first time in the southern state.In Gajwel, BJP has deployed its election campaign chairman Eatala Rajender against CM Rao.Revanth Reddy, a Lok Sabha member, is also contesting from Kodangal which he had represented earlier.BJP's Rajender is seeking re-election from Huzurabad.
As part of his campaign, PM Modi addressed rallies for three days in a row in the state, including at Kamareddy, Nirmal, Maheswaram, and Karimnagar, besides holding a massive roadshow in the state capital. He had also attended a 'BJP's BC Atma Gourava Sabha' (backward classes self-respect meeting) and a public meeting organised by the Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS).
Congress fielded its state president Revanth Reddy to take on the chief minister in Kamareddy, while BJP candidate Venkata Ramana Reddy is no pushover either. Congress has come up with an elaborate and meticulous campaign. The grand old party's campaign was led by its leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Revanth Reddy.
It focused mainly on the alleged corruption of the BRS government while highlighting its six poll guarantees.
Besides BRS, Congress and BJP, BSP supremo Mayawati also took part in electioneering in the state.