Campaigning by political parties for LS polls in Telangana ends, voting on May 13

Hyderabad: A high-octane campaign by political parties for the May 13 Lok Sabha polls in Telangana ended at 6 PM on Saturday.

The Election Commission has also made arrangements to conduct a bypoll for the Secunderabad (Cantonment) Assembly seat to be held on May 13.

Earlier in the day, State Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj at a press conference said all election campaigns including public meetings have to come to a halt after 6 PM today.

About Rs 320 crore worth of cash, freebies and other articles have been seized so far, he added.

Over 3.31 crore voters are expected to exercise their franchise in 35,356 polling stations across the state.

As many as 625 candidates, including Union Minister and Telangana BJP president G Kishan Reddy, the party’s national general secretary Bandi Sanjay Kumar and senior leader Etala Rajender are among the saffron party candidates while the Congress fielded among others, BRS turncoats Danam Nagender and K Kavya.

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi is seeking re-election from the party's bastion of Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency and the BJP has fielded a political novice but enthusiastic K Madhavi Latha who has begun a spirited campaign.

The former IPS officer RS Praveen Kumar and sitting MP Nama Nageswar Rao, among others, are in the poll fray from former Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao-led BRS.

The counting of votes will be taken up on June 4 nationwide.

Other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi, several union ministers including Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah, and Congress leaders Mallikrajun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy undertook poll campaigns for their respective party candidates.

The Congress campaign centered around reservations for SC, ST and OBC alleging that BJP, if voted to power at the Centre again, will try to abolish quota for the above sections. It also highlighted that the Congress government in Telangana implemented five out of the six Assembly poll guarantees.

The BJP focussed mainly on how the grand old party allegedly will try to snatch away reservations and allot the same to "Muslims" and controversial comments by Congress leader Sam Pitroda on “race and skin colours of Indians”.

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.

A press release from Telangana DGP’s office said 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.

All vehicles carrying EVMs and VVPATs are fitted with GPS systems and provided invariably with armed security by Central forces, a press release from the CEO said today.

Telangana recorded 62 per cent voter turnout in the 2019 Parliamentary elections.

The BRS (then TRS) won nine seats, BJP - four, Congress - three and AIMIM - one seat in the 2019 general elections.

Inputs from PTI