About 60.57 per cent voting was recorded in Telangana across 17 Lok Sabha constituencies till 5 pm, with Medak recording highest number of voter turnout with 68.60 per cent and Secunderabad the lowest of 39.20 per cent, where the BJP candidate K Kishen Reddy is facing a stiff challenge from his arch rival TRS and Congress nominees.
District-wise percentage made available to media are; Adilabad (ST) (66.76%), Paddapalli (SC) (59.24%), Karimnagar (68%), Nizamabad (54.20%), Zaheerabad (67.80%),Medak (68.60%), Malkajgiri (42.75%), Secunderabad (39.2%), Hyderabad 39.49%), Cheella (53.80%), Mahabubnagar (64.99%), Nagarkurnool (SC) (57.12%), Nalgonda (66.11), Bhongir (68.25%), Warangal (SC (60%), Mahabubabad (59.90%) and Khammam (67.96%). Average is around 60.67%.
Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimhan, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, TRS Working President K T Ramarao, K Kavitha and Asaduddin Owaisi and film actors Chiranjeevi, Ram Charan, Allu Arjun, Jr NTR and ‘Baahubali” Director SS Rajamouli were among the prominent, who came out and cast their votes in their respective constituencies in the City.
Chief Minister came alongwith his wife to cast vote in his native Siddipet district’s Chintamadaka village.
Key candidates, who were testing their fortunes in the new state are; K Kavitha, the Chief Minister’s daughter seeking re-election from Nizamabad, former Union Minister Renuka Choudhary from Khammam, the PCC Chief K Uttam Kumar Reddy from his native Nalgonda parliament constituency, the state Congress Working President Revanth Reddy from Malkajgiri and the AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi from Hyderabad, the party’s bastion.
Meanwhile, the Telangana BJP Chief Official Spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao alleged that the Election Commission had fallen short of expectations in conduct of elections in the state. He felt, the Teams deployed to fix the EVMs when they were not functional should have been technically more efficient, At many places, he said even though there were three EVMs in a booth, only one or two were functioning.
Interestingly, the ” Apollo Hospitals Group Executive Vice Chairperson Shobana Kamineni on Thursday complained of her name not being found in the electoral list. She said, she is feeling ‘worst day as Indian citizen.”.