Spurt in Telangana MLC polling percentage triggers debate

Voter turnout for the graduates’ seat stood at 70.42 per cent — 2,50,106 voters exercised their franchise as against 3,55,159 total voters. It is 11.39 per cent higher than that of 2019 MLC polls when 59.03 per cent voting was recorded

Karimnagar: Increase of polling percentage of Medak-Nizamabad-Adilabad-Karimnagar Graduates and Teachers MLC segments has triggered debate among various sections, especially contestant candidates as well as political parties.

Elections for the graduates and teachers MLC constituencies were held on Thursday. Voter turnout for the graduates’ seat stood at 70.42 per cent — 2,50,106 voters exercised their franchise as against 3,55,159 total voters. It is 11.39 per cent higher than that of 2019 MLC polls when 59.03 per cent voting was recorded.

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Similar is the case of the teachers segment, which recorded 91.90 per cent — 24,895 electors cast their votes as against 27,088 votes. When compared to the previous election, there is an 8.39 per cent jump in polling percentage.

The spurt in polling percentage has triggered a debate among the public since the contestant candidate and political parties carried out campaigns on par with MLA elections. All the candidates widely used social media for the campaign.

Now, the debate is about who will benefit from the increased polling percentage. Usually, less voting would be recorded if there is anti-incumbency to the government. If people thought that the Congress has no anti-incumbency, voting was not outrightly polled in favour of the ruling party’s graduates candidate V Narender Reddy, political analysis said.

Though a well-known person in north Telangana through his Alphores educational institutions, Narender Reddy seems to have not shown much influence in many places. BJP aspirant Anji Reddy reportedly secured votes in Sangareddy, parts of Medak, Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Adilabad. Polarisation of BC votes seems to have occurred this time, observers say.

BC candidate and owner of winners’ publications Prasanna Harikrishna contested on a BSP ticket. Well-known among young graduates, especially unemployed youth preparing for competitive examinations, Harikrishna seems to have influenced voters in Karimnagar, Siddipet, Nirmal and parts of Adilabad district.

Political analysts also said the candidates, who would get majority votes in the erstwhile Karimnagar district, may win the seat since majority of votes were polled in the district. Of 2,50,106 polled votes, 1,07,762 were polled in Karimnagar district. Candidates also focused more on Karimnagar as a majority of voters (45.12 per cent) were there in the district. Of 3,55,159 total voters, 1,60,260 are from Karimnagar. The future of the candidates will be known in the counting scheduled on March 3.