Hyderabad: About 70 percent of 2.8 voters voted in the Telangana Assembly election on Friday as the polling ended on a peaceful note, barring minor incidents.
Polling ended in 106 constituencies at 5 p.m. but those standing in queues were allowed to cast their votes. The exact poll percentage will be known after receipt of detailed reports from the districts, officials said in Hyderabad.
Some 56.17 percent voters had voted by 3 p.m.
Polling ended in 13 constituencies affected by Maoist violence at 4 p.m,
Chief Electoral Officer Rajath Kumar said barring sporadic incidents, the polling was peaceful and smooth in all 32,815 polling stations across 31 districts.
In some polling centres, the process started late due to technical glitches in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
Of the total electorate, nearly half are women. There were 1,821 candidates, including Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao and his 14 cabinet colleagues.
Over 50,000 security personnel, including 18,860 from neighbouring states and central forces, were deployed as part of the security arrangements.
Over 1.50 lakh polling personnel were on duty to conduct the polling process. As many as 55,329 EVMs and 39,763 control units were in use.
For the first time, Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) were installed across the state.
Counting of votes will be taken up on December 11.
Meanwhile, Times Now-CNX exit poll predicted that TRS will form the government once again in Telangana.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJNRcI8tlOU
As per the exit poll, TRS will win 66 seats whereas Congress+ 37, BJP 7 and others 9.
It may be noted that it is just an exit poll which may differ with the results which is scheduled to be released on 11th December.