Graduates constituency bypoll concludes peacefully

The counting will be held on June 5.

Hyderabad: Barring a couple of incidents, polling for the by-election to the Telangana Legislative Council from Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda Graduates’ constituency concluded peacefully on Monday. Till 2 pm, about 49.53 per cent polling was recorded against 4.63 lakh graduate voters.

Polling began at 8 am and concluded at 4 pm. The counting will be held on June 5.

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The by-election was necessitated following the resignation of sitting BRS MLC Palla Rajeshwar Reddy who won the Assembly polls from the Jangaon constituency in December last year.

Minor incidents were reported at a few places during the polling. An independent candidate P Ashok Goud was attacked by Congress leaders at Narkatpally on Monday morning. Goud had objected to them allegedly distributing money to graduate voters at a function hall and also attempted to record it on his mobile phone. The Congress leaders are learnt to have beaten him and his followers apart from damaging his phone, apart from taking away another phone. Later, Goud and others staged a protest against the Congress leaders at Narkatpally police station.

A total of 52 candidates are contesting, but the main competition is between the ruling Congress, the BRS and the BJP. The Congress party nominated Chinthapandu Naveen alias Teenmar Mallanna and BJP fielded G Premender Reddy, while A Rakesh Reddy is the BRS candidate. Polling was held at 605 polling stations under the Graduates constituency spread across 34 Assembly constituencies in 12 districts.

Unlike general elections where the EVMs are used, the polling was conducted with ballot papers where the voters cast their preferential vote by marking against the candidates in the order of priority with a violet colour pen provided by the authorities. Later, they deposited their ballot papers in the ballot boxes. Voters who stood in the queues before 4 pm were allowed to cast their votes. The final voting percentage is likely to be announced on Tuesday.

MLC bye-poll passes off peacefully in erstwhile Khammam

The bye-election to Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda graduates’ constituency MLC seat passed off peacefully on Monday.

District Collector VP Gautham informed that 67.63 percent polling was recorded in the elections, in which 34, 847 men, 21, 881 women and two transgender voters exercised their right to vote.

He inspected the reception centre set up at SR and BGNR College and said that ballot boxes would be moved to the strong rooms set up in Nalgonda for counting of votes on June 5.

Kothagudem district Collector Dr. Priyanka Ala informed that 70.01 percent polling was recorded in the district, in which 16, 206 male and 28, 077 female voters cast their vote. The Collector and SP B Rohith Raju inspected different polling stations in the day to monitor the polling.