HYDERABAD, Nov 29 : After a high decibel campaign that saw the likes of top national leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi and ruling BRS supremo K Chandrasekar Rao addressing a series of meetings crisscrossing the state, the stage is now set for polling on Thursday to elect 119 members to the Telangana Legislative Assembly.
Voters would exercise their franchise in 35,655 polling stations set up across the state. There are 3.26 crore eligible voters in the state.
Polling would be held from 7 AM to 5 PM in 106 constituencies and from 7 AM to 4 PM in 13 Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas, official sources said on Wednesday.
As many as 2,290 contestants are in the fray for the upcoming elections, 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.
The model code of conduct came into force in the state after the Election Commission announced the schedule on October 9.
BRS has fielded candidates in all 119 seats.
As per the seat sharing agreement, BJP and actor Pawan Kalyan-headed Jana Sena are contesting in 111 and 8 seats respectively, while Congress has given one seat to its ally CPI, and fighting from 118 others.
Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM has put up candidates in nine segments in the city.
The BRS is keen on extending its winning run that started in 2014, while the Congress is putting up a spirited fight to win the polls having tasted defeat in 2018 and four year earlier, when the previous UPA government granted statehood to Telangana.
The BJP is also leaving no stone unturned to come to power for the first time in the southern state.
CM KCR is contesting from two segments– Gajwel and Kamareddy. He represents Gajwel in the outgoing Legislative Assembly.
Kamareddy and Gajwel are witnessing exciting contests.
Congress has fielded its state president Revanth Reddy to take on the chief minister in Kamareddy, while BJP candidate Venkata Ramana Reddy is no pushover either.
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. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is contesting all the seats on its own.
More than 2.5 lakh staff will be engaged in poll duties for the assembly elections, Chief Electoral officer Vikas Raj has said.
PM Modi addressed rallies for three days in a row in the state.
BRS working president and KCR’s son K T Rama Rao also campaigned extensively for BRS.
The grand old party’s campaign was led by its leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Revanth Reddy.
For the first time in Telangana, home voting facility was provided to the persons with disabilities and voters above 80 years.
As on November 28, law enforcement agencies have seized cash, gold, liquor, freebies among others all worth about Rs 737 crore in the state ever since the model code of conduct came into force in the state on October 9, an official release said.
The EC has ordered all private establishments including IT firms to declare holiday on November 30 to enable employees to exercise their franchise.
Counting of votes will be taken up on December 3. (PTI)
