Peaceful Progress In Telangana Municipal Polls

Hyderabad, Jan.22 (Maxim News): Barring a few incidents at some places in the State, polling in 120 municipalities and nine municipal corporations went on peacefully on Wednesday.

According to State Election Commission officials, the polling percent was 67.46 by 3 pm and 55.89 percent by 1 pm in all the districts. In Dabeerpura, the polling was 22.21 percent by 3 pm and 11 percent at 1 pm. It may cross 80 percent voting by the end of the polling, said the officials. The average polling percentage in all the urban local bodies was put at 36.63 percent by 11 am.

Ministers V Srinivas Goud, Singireddy Niranjan Reddy and G Jagadish Reddy, along with their family members cast their votes in their respective polling stations. TPCC Chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy, along with his wife Padmavati, CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka cast their votes.

Speaking to mediapersons later, Uttam Kumar Reddy and Mallu Bhatti Vikramarkha criticized the TRS leaders for distributing money to the voters by violating the poll code. The police nabbed some people, who were found distributing money at some polling stations, it is learnt.

At a Gadwal polling station, police men resorted to lathi-charge to disperse Congress and MIM activists, who got into a tussle. In the fight, Congress leader Shankar was injured and was shifted to a hospital.

In Yadagirigutta, polling started half-an-hour late in some polling stations due to power cut and the election staff sat on the floor to conduct voting process as there were no tables. At some polling stations, there were clashes among the activists of Congress, TRS, AIMIM and BJP at some polling stations.

Though the polling started at 7 am, voter turnout was low during the early hours. The election officials used face recognition app for the first time in some 10 polling stations under Kompally municipality. The Officials of State Election Commission and municipalities were monitoring the poll process through web casting in 2,406 polling stations and polling was videographed in 2,072 polling stations.

The SEC set up 6,188 polling stations in the municipalities and 1,773 in municipal corporations in the State. Polling in one of 325 divisions in nine municipal corporations and 80 of 2,727 wards in 120 municipalities was unanimous. There were 1,746 candidates in the corporations and 11,099 candidates in the municipalities were in fray. As many as 45,000 polling personnel and 50,000 police men were deployed for election duty.

Barring a few complaints pertaining to distribution of money to influence voters, the polls to the urban local bodies are passing off in an incident-free manner across the State on Wednesday.

Arguments and counter-arguments took place between candidates and their followers on distributing money. The police immediately swung into action and dispersed the two groups.

Senior police officials are monitoring the situation at the sensitive and hypersensitive areas to prevent any untoward incidents.

A majority of municipalities and corporations are registering less turnout but officials said the voting percentage might increase by evening.(Maxim News)