The voting for 119-member Telangana Legislative Assembly began on Thursday at 7 am on 35,655 polling stations across the state. While Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao's Bharat Rashtra Samithi is vying a consecutive third term in the youngest state of India, Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party have posed a significant challenge in fulfiling this ambition of KCR.
The polling will be held till 5 pm in 106 constituencies while it will be concluded at 4 pm in 13 Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected seats of the state.
A total of 3.26 crore registered voters will seal the fate of 2,990 candidates in the fray including Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, Telangana minister K T Rama Rao, state Congress president A Revanth Reddy, and BJP Lok Sabha members Bandi Sanjay Kumar and D Arvind.
The ruling BRS has fielded candidates on all 119 seats while BJP and actor Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena are contesting on 111 and 8 seats respectively as per a seat sharing agreement.
Congress has nominated candidates on 118 seats and has given one seat to ally Communist Party of India while Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen has put up candidates in nine segments in Hyderabad.
Among the prominent leaders who will cast their votes in Thursday's poll include Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya, his Tripura counterpart N Indrasena Reddy, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, Union Minister and state BJP president G Kishan Reddy.
Over 77,000 security personnel have been deployed across the state to ensure law and order sitatution during the polls. State police and Home Guards drawn from the state and neighbouring states have been deployed on poll duty, besides 375 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), reported PTI.
According to Chief Electoral officer Vikas Raj, more than 2.5 lakh polling officials have been eganged in election duties for assembly elections.
The model code of conduct came into force in the state after the dates of the polls were announced by the Election Commission of India on October 9.
The votes will be counted on December 3 along with Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Mizoram.