Stage set for polling for 17 constituencies in Telangana

Hyderabad: The stage is set for polling in  17 constituencies in Telangana. In Telangana, nearly 2.97 crore voters will decide the fortunes of 443 candidates in the single-phase polling.

The state has 34,603 polling stations including 5,749 sensitive stations.

Jitender, Additional Director General of Police, said besides 55,946 personnel of Telangana Police, 9,700 personnel from other states, 145 companies of central armed forces and 25 companies of Telangana State Special Police were deployed.

Nizamabad constituency will be entering the record books with a record number of candidates and maximum number of EVMs. A total of 185 candidates including 178 farmers are in fray, and 12 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will be used in each polling booth. The farmers filed the nominations to highlight their problems including lack of remunerative prices for their produce.

Telangana Chief Minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) President K. Chandrashekhar Rao's daughter K. Kavitha is seeking re-election from Nizamabad. Buoyed by the landslide victory in the recent Assembly elections, TRS is confident of winning 16 seats, leaving Hyderabad for its ally All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).

Opposition Congress is demoralised with the defection of 10 MLAs and other leaders to the TRS over the last one month.

In 2014 elections, the TRS had bagged 11 seats while the Congress had won two. The TDP, BJP, AIMIM and the YSRCP had secured a seat each.

The TDP and the YSRCP are not contesting the elections this time in Telangana.

K. Kavitha, Vinod Kumar (both TRS), state Congress chief Uttam Kumar Reddy, former Union Minister Renuka Chowdary (Congress) and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi are among the prominent candidates.