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Thursday, December 6, 2018

2018 Telegana Assembly Election - Voting underway today Friday Dec 07,2018

After a high-decibel election campaign, voting is underway in Telangana on Friday Dec 07,2018


Telangana

Voting began at 7 am and will conclude at 5 pm, except in 13 constituencies classified as Left Wing Extremist-affected, where the process ends at 4 pm.

As many as 1,821 candidates, including a transgender, are in fray in today’s assembly election which is the first full-fledged polls in the country’s youngest state.

Election Commission has made elaborate arrangements for a smooth conduct of the voting process in 32,815 polling stations.

For the first time, the Election Commission is using Voters Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in Telangana.

In Telangana, over 2.8 crore voters, 1.41 crore men and 1.39 crore women including 7.04 lakh voters under the age of 20, will exercise their franchise in 32,815 polling stations.

 About 1 lakh police personnel, including 25,000 central paramilitary forces and 20,000 from other states are on poll duty in the state.

In Telangana, Congress-led alliance is challenging the ruling TRS, and the BJP seeking to make it a triangular contest

The assembly polls in Telangana were originally scheduled to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections next year, but the House was dissolved on September 6 as per a recommendation by the state cabinet. It is to be seen if KCR's gamble to opt for early elections pays off.

What is making pollsters job impossible is arithmetic versus perception.

The arithmetic favours ‘Mahakutami’ and the perception still favours TRS.

In the 2014 elections, the Congress and TDP together had polled 39.5% as against 36% of TRS. In a multi-corner contest the TRS romped home by bagging 63 seats. The Congress won 21 and TDP won 15 seats respectively. The BJP won 5 and MIM 7.

The Mahakutami is eyeing votes from the powerful Reddys, SCs, Muslims and "settlers" from Andhra Pradesh to unseat KCR. The SCs seems to be backing the Congress this time. The Muslims are also divided.

KCR, who hails from a miniscule Velama caste, is fighting the battle on his welfare schemes. The Backward Classes are likely to back the TRS with some going back to TDP.
 

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