Polling begins for 25 LS, 175 Assembly seats in Andhra; 17 LS seats in Telangana

Amaravati/ Hyderabad: Polling for 175 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh and17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana is underway with voters standing in queues to exercise their franchise on Monday.

After an intense campaign marked by fervent speeches from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, and several other prominent leaders across political parties over the past several weeks, polling began at 7 am today.

YSRCP president Jagan Mohan Reddy (Pulivendula), TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu (Kuppam) and Janasena chief and actor Pawan Kalyan (Pithapuram), among others, are in the Assembly poll race.

Andhra Pradesh Congress president and Jagan's sister YS Sharmila (Kadapa) and BJP state chief Purandeswari (Rajamahendravaram), among others, are in Lok Sabha poll fray.

According to a note from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), Jagan Mohan Reddy is expected to cast his vote in Bhakarapuram in Pulivendula constituency of Kadapa district on Monday and head back to Tadepalli by 10 am.

The YSRCP is contesting in all 175 Assembly seats and 25 Lok Sabha segments in the state.

As part of a seat-sharing deal among NDA partners, the TDP was allocated 144 Assembly and 17 Lok Sabha constituencies while the BJP is contesting from six Lok Sabha and 10 Assembly seats.

The Janasena is contesting two Lok Sabha and 21 Assembly seats.

The YSR Congress campaign centred around the welfare measures that it implemented during the past five years while the NDA highlighted the "failures" of the state government and the doles it would provide, if voted to power in the state and the job creation it would do.

Besides PM Modi, several union ministers including Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah, and Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi undertook poll campaigns for their respective party candidates.

For the smooth conduct of the polls, the Election Commission has deployed 1.06 lakh security personnel, who included 3,500 Karnataka police, 4,500 Tamil Nadu police, 1,614 ex-servicemen and 246 retired police personnel, among others.

The polling is scheduled from 7 AM to 6 PM in the state, barring a few places where it will conclude one or two hours before.

The total number of voters in the southern state is 4.14 crore, which includes 2.02 crore male, 2.1 crore female, 3,421 third gender voters and 68,185 service electors.

As many as 454 candidates are in the fray for Lok Sabha and 2,387 for Assembly polls, according to Andhra Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer MK Meena.

The YSRCP won 151 seats, TDP 23 and Janasena claimed one in the last Assembly polls while the ruling party emerged victorious in 22 and Chandrababu Naidu-led party in three Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 elections.

In Telangana, the Election Commission has also made arrangements to conduct a bypoll for the Secunderabad (Cantonment) Assembly seat to be held simultaneously today.

A contingent of 73,000 civil police personnel, 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 have been deployed as part of security measures, the Telangana DGP office said.

All vehicles carrying EVMs and VVPATs are fitted with GPS systems and provided invariably with armed security by central forces.

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- the Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency- and the BJP has fielded a political novice but enthusiastic K Madhavi Latha who ran a spirited campaign.

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.

Apart from Prime Minister Modi, several union ministers including Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah, and Congress leaders Mallikrajun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy canvassed 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 the implementation of five out of the six Assembly poll guarantees in Telangana by the party-led government.

The BJP focussed mainly on how the grand old party will allegedly try to snatch away reservations and allot it 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.

According to State Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj, about Rs 320 crore worth of cash, freebies and other articles have been seized during the period of poll code.

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

By-poll for Secunderabad (Cantonment) was necessitated following the death of sitting BRS legislator Lasaya Nadidta in a fatal road accident in February this year.

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