Pollsters expect the factor will favour the TRS party in the high-stakes bypoll
Siddipet: Women will have a greater say than men in Dubbak by-election since they account for 1,00,778 votes against the 97,978 male voters. Since the TRS has fielded Solipeta Sujatha, wife of late Solipeta Ramalinga Reddy, whose sudden demise in August first week necessitated the election, the factor is expected to favour the TRS party. In the triangular contest, the Congress and the BJP have fielded Cheruku Srinivas Reddy and M Raghunandan Rao respectively.
There are 23 candidates in fray. Since there was NOTA option too, there will be 24 voting symbols on EVM machines.
The by-election is scheduled to be held on November 3 that is on Tuesday. In view of Covid-19 outbreak, the polling will be conducted from 7am to 6pm. The Constituency is spread in seven mandals- Dubbak, Doulthabad, Mirdoddi, Raipole, Thoguta, Narsingi and Chegunta. While the first five mandals fall under Siddipet district the latter two belong to Medak district. There were 315 polling booths in the constituency in 148 villages and in Dubbak Municipality. Out of seven mandals, Dubbak is having more than 25 per cent of the total 1,98,756 votes of the constituency. Dubbak mandal was having 55,208 votes while the Narsingi mandal was having the lowest number of votes with 8,215.
In view of Covid-19 outbreak, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has decided to restrict the number of voters to below 1,000 at each polling of the station which made the local officials to create 54 auxiliary polling stations by increasing the existing polling stations from 264 to 315.
Meanwhile, Commissioner of Police, Siddipet, D Joel Davis said that they were going to deploy over 2,000 personnel across the Dubbak constituency on the polling day to ensure the election is conducted smoothly.
Siddipet Collector Bharathi Hollikeri said that they have roped in the services of 1,600 staff for election duty. They will post five staff at each of the 315 polling stations, which include a Presiding Officer and an Assistant Presiding Officer.
On Monday, the EVMs were handed over to all the election staff at EVM distribution point at Latachpet near Dubbak town in Siddipet district. The officials have arranged special buses to help the polling staff to reach their polling stations.
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