The voter turnout during Telangana Assembly polls on Thursday was at 36.68 per cent till 1 pm, as per the data shared by the Election Commission of India. The polling began at 7 am on all 119 constituencies in the state and will continue till 5 pm on 106 seats while it will conclude at 4 pm on 13 seats affected with Left Wing Extremism.
The voting percentage was at a low of around 8 per cent till 9 am which picked up in the next two hours as the voter turnout at 11 am touched 20.64 per cent.
Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao who is vying to score a hat-trick in the state reached at his ancestral village in in Chintamadaka, Siddipet of Medak district to cast his vote.
Haryana GovernorBandaru Dattatreya also exercised his franchise in Hyderabad. AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, state Congress president Revanth Reddy, state BJP president and Union minister G Kishan Reddy, BJP MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar, BRS MLC K Kavitha, Telangana minister K T Rama Rao and several other political leaders voted on Thursday.
Superstars from Telugu film industry also exrecised their franchise and appealed to people to come out and vote in record numbers.
Actors Manoj Manchu, Ram Pothineni, Jagapathi Babu, Vijay Deverakonda also reached at their designated polling stations to cast vote.
A scuffle also reportedly broke out between groups of workers of Congress and BJP at a polling station in Jangaon while BRS workers stopped state Congress chief Revanth Reddy's brother, Kondal Reddy from visiting a polling booth saying he is neither a voter nor authorised to visit.
Kondal Reddy is roaming around with a fake pass and speaking with the Returning Officer. He is roaming around with 20 people," a BRS worker told ANI, adding, he went to three polling stations with them in three vehicles but the Police didn't tell them anything...They are indulging in hooliganism.