Poll campaign concludes in Telangana

Besides 17 parliamentary constituencies, the polling for the bye-election of Secunderabad Cantonment Assembly bypoll also will be held on Monday.

Hyderabad: Campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections in Telangana came to an end at 6 pm on Saturday, ahead of polling on May 13 as part of the fourth phase of the general elections being held across the nation. The poll campaign concluded by 4 pm in left-wing affected areas and other sensitive areas.

Besides 17 parliamentary constituencies, the polling for the bye-election of Secunderabad Cantonment Assembly bypoll also will be held on Monday.

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The counting of votes will be taken up on June 4. Telangana had recorded a 62 per cent voter turnout in the 2019 Parliamentary elections.

The BRS (then TRS) won nine seats, BJP secured four, Congress got three and AIMIM bagged one seat in 2019. In 2024, 525 candidates including 285 independent candidates are in the fray, with Secunderabad having the highest number of 45 candidates and Adilabad lowest at 12 candidates.

However, the major fight is between the resurgent BRS, the Congress and the BJP in most of the constituencies. Over 3.31 crore voters are expected to exercise their franchise in 35,356 polling stations across the State. Around 1.88 lakh postal ballots have been polled.

The Home Voting process which was introduced for the first time for Lok Sabha polls here, began on May 1 and concluded peacefully on May 6, where around 21,680 voters exercised their franchise.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, several union ministers including Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah, and Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and others flew down to Telangana and addressed numerous public meetings.

Leader of Opposition and BRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and BJP State president G Kishan Reddy among others also participated in poll campaigns for their respective party candidates.

The Congress campaign centered around the BJP’s alleged plans to abolish reservations for SC, ST and OBC. The party also claimed to have implemented five out of the six Assembly poll guarantees, besides giving fresh promises.

In turn, the BJP focused on the Modi factor as well as the Congress attempts to appease the minorities. The BRS campaign, led by former Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, highlighted the failures of the incumbent Congress government, besides attacking the BJP on various issues.

Chandrashekhar Rao emphasised the need for a strong Telangana voice in the parliament to protect Telangana’s interests from the national parties who were resorting to votebank politics.

On the last day of the campaign, the political parties went all guns blazing against each other during the public meetings organised in different parts of the State.

The BJP which is seeking a third-term at the Centre, had union Minister Amit Shah held a press meet and also held a strategy meeting with party leaders, before leaving for Delhi. Congress senior leader Priyanka Gandhi participated in public meetings at Tandur and Kamareddy along with Revanth Reddy.

Chandrashekhar Rao addressed a press conference to share his thoughts after traversing across the State as part of his 17-day bus yatra, while working president KT Rama Rao, senior leader T Harish Rao and several other leaders were busy campaigning for party candidates in different parts of the State.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission of India (ECI) deployed over 73,000 civil police, 500 sections of the state special police, 164 companies of central armed police forces, three companies of Tamil Nadu police, 2,088 officials from other departments and 7,000 home guards are deployed as part of security measures.

Nearly 2.94 lakh government employees and other individuals were enlisted for election duty.

Officials of different departments enforcing the model code of conduct have seized material worth over Rs 320 crore including cash, liquor and freebies, meant to induce voters and filed 8,600 cases, since the poll code came into force on April 16.