Polling for the Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda Graduate MLC constituency went off peacefully with no untoward incidents reported from the three district, here on Sunday.
Khammam district had registered an estimated 49.61 per cent polling in the Legislative Council election to the Khammam-Nalgonda-Warangal Graduates constituency held on Sunday.
Around 41,813 voters of the total 84,285 registered voters had exercised their franchise at 123 polling stations in the district to decide the fate of 22 candidates in the fray.
The voter turnout was lower than expected in Kothagudem and Khammam divisions, which recorded around 49.43 per cent and 49.64 per cent of polling respectively.
The toll-free number set up by the election authorities at the Collectorate was flooded with phone calls all through the day with many voters making queries mainly related to the difficulties in location of the polling stations where they are entitled to cast their vote.
Minister for Roads and Buildings T Nageswara Rao exercised his franchise in Dammapeta.
Collector K Ilambarithi, Joint Collector D Divya, senior CPI leader Puvvada Nageswara Rao were prominent among those who cast their votes in Khammam town.
Nalgonda records highest polling
Nalgonda Staff Reporter adds: The Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda Graduate MLC constituency has recorded very low turn out of voting since many graduates kept away from voting despite Sunday being a holiday. The Graduate MLC constituency recorded just 53.25 per cent of voting. However, among the three districts Nalgonda had recorded highest voting percentage with 58.35 per cent followed by Warangal with 51.36 per cent and Khammam 50.01 per cent.
The election went off peacefully across Nalgonda. Against a total of 2,81,138 voters, just 1,49,718 voters have voted in these three districts. In Nalgonda, Bhongir revenue division stood at top with 69.51 per cent of polling that was followed by Deverakonda 62.79 per cent, Suryapet 58.94, Nalgonda 55.18 per cent and Miryalaguda with 53.57 per cent. Energy Minister G. Jagadishwar Reddy had cast his vote at Arvapally mandal while District Collector P. Satyanarayana Reddy, Superintendent of Police, T. Prabhakar Rao and Joint Collector N. Satyanarayana have exercised their franchise in Nalgonda town. Among the 59 mandals in Nalgonda, Gundala mandal of Bhongir division has recorded highest polling with 84.86 per cent. Among the very few mandals that recorded 80 poll per cent in district four were from Bhongir division only.
New voters
Warangal Special Correspondent adds: The polling for the Graduates Constituency election went off peacefully and no untoward incident was reported from any corner of the district, here on Sunday.
By the time the last reports came in around 4 p.m., a polling percentage of 51.36 was registered with polling going on at 12 polling stations still. The final figure of percentage is likely to arrive at 8.30 pm which is estimated to be around 55 per cent. Collector Vakati Karuna and SP AK Jha went round the district overseeing the polling at random, at several polling stations.
The polling which was recorded 5.20 per cent (total three districts 6.10 per cent) in Warangal district at 10 a.m. picked up slowly and it was 18.50 per cent (total three districts was 19.3 per cent) at 12 noon. The polling percentage at 2 p.m. was 33.52 per cent in Warangal and the total was 43.6 per cent in the three districts. At many polling stations young and new voters were seen taking part in the process enthusiastically. There were a total of 1,04,364 voters in the district and 144 polling stations were arranged for the polling.
