Voters to decide fate of 2,290 candidates today
High-stakes battle in Telangana as Congress challenges ruling BRS
image for illustrative purpose
Hyderabad: 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. 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). Modi had said the Centre would soon form a committee which would adopt all possible ways for empowering Madigas (a SC community) with regard to their demand of categorisation of Scheduled Castes.
Besides Modi, a host of senior BJP leaders--Union Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma, also campaigned for the BJP.
