Hyderabad: Amid tight security, polling is underway for six vacancies in the legislative council from local authority constituencies (LAC) in Telangana. The polling is on for two seats in Karimnagar district and one each in undivided districts of Adilabad, Khammam, Medak and Nalgonda on Friday, where local body representatives including corporators, councilors, Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency (ZPTC) and Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency (MPTC) members are casting their votes.
According to poll officials, a total of 5,326 voters will decide the fate of 26 candidates. The polling, which began at 8 am across all 37 polling stations in the six constituencies, will continue till 4 p.m. Counting of votes will be taken up on December 14.
State Chief Electoral Officer Shashank Goel said all arrangements were made to ensure free and fair polling. He was monitoring the poll process from Hyderabad. District collectors, police commissioners, superintendents of police and other officials were supervising the arrangements in their respective districts. The officials are also taking steps to ensure strict adherence to Covid-19 protocol during the polling. They banned mobile phones and cameras in the polling centres.
Who are the candidates?
After losing the Huzurabad bypoll with a margin of 23,855 votes to Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), these elections are major electoral test for ruling ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). As many as 26 candidates are in the fray, including sitting MLCs T Bhanuprasad Rao from Karimnagar), Yadava Reddy from Medak, and MC Koti Reddy from Nalgonda. The TRS has also fielded L Ramana from Karimnagar, Tata Madhu from Khammam and Dande Vittal from Adilabad.
Telangana MLC polls: TRS vs BJP
TRS rebel candidate and former Karimnagar mayor Sardar Ravinder Singh is contesting from one of the seats in Karimnagar district. The BJP is supporting him. Congress candidates are in the fray in Medak, Khammam and Adilabad.
Facing rebel trouble, TRS had shifted its local body members to Bengaluru, Goa, Delhi and other places to prevent the opposition parties from poaching its voters. They were brought to a resort on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Thursday and left for their respective districts on Friday morning.
The Election Commission of India had last month issued notification for election to six seats of the Council from local authority constituencies. At the time, Talangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter K. Kavitha and five other candidates of ruling TRS were declared elected unanimously.
Kavitha was elected from Nizamabad constituency. The others who were elected to upper house of the state legislature are Patnam Mahender Reddy, Shambipur Raju (both from Rangareddy district), Pochampally Srinivas Reddy (Warangal), Kasireddy Narayana Reddy and Kuchumalla Damodar Reddy(both from Mahabubnagar district).
