Hyderabad: Polling for the two seats in the legislative assembly in graduate constituencies of Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad and Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda is going on a slow pace, with 39.09 per cent and 43.46 per cent of turnout recorded until 2 pm, the chief electoral officer said on Sunday.
The voting began at 8 am and will continue until 4 pm today. The number of voters in the Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda stands at 5,05,565, where 71 candidates are contesting the poll and in the Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad constituency there are 5,31,268 voters, with 93 candidates in the fray.
They include 6.68 lakh men, 3.66 lakh women and 135 transgenders at around 1,530 polling centres and 12,000 staff deployed in the two constituencies at the polling centre.
There are a total of 799 polling stations in Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahbubnagar graduate constituency, 199 in Ranga Reddy, 198 in Medchal-Malkajgiri, 191 in Hyderabad, 56 in Mahabubnagar, 44 in Nagarkurnool, 31 in Wanaparthy, 22 in Jogulamba Gadwal, 20 in Narayanpet, and 38 in Vikarabad.
This time, ballot papers are being used in the polls for preferential voting instead of electronic voting machines.
The first two hours of polling witnessed various Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) working president KT Rama Rao, TRS candidate for Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda constituency Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, Hyderabad mayor Gadwal Vijayalakshmi, chief secretary to the Telangana government Somesh Kumar, Cyberabad commissioner Sajjanar among others casting their vote in various polling booths.
Polling material is to be collected by the staff from the indoor stadium of the L.B. Stadium. Counting of votes will take place in Saroornagar indoor stadium on March 17, and the election process will come to an end on March 22.