Telangana Assembly Election LIVE UPDATES: 52% turnout till 3 pm; my name missing in list, could not vote, says Jwala Gutta

Background

Telangana Assembly Election VOTING LIVE: Polling began in Telangana on Friday amid tight security to elect a new Assembly. The polling will be held from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. in 106 constituencies, while in 13 Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected constituencies, the polling will conclude at 4 p.m. Around 2.8 crore voters will decide the fate of 1,821 candidates in the first election after Telangana was formed. The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is facing a resurgent Congress-led People's Front in its bid for a second term.

The TRS government dissolved the Assembly about eight months ahead of the schedule in the hope of taking the Opposition parties by surprise but the Congress threw a surprise by coming up with an alliance in a bid to oust the ruling party. For the 119-member Telangana assembly where the Congress has tied up with rivals TDP, CPI and Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS), a new party floated by M. Kodandaram, who was once Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao's friend in the Telangana movement.

Telangana has 51,796 polling stations, an increase of 14.25 per cent over the previous election in 2013.

15:47 PM (IST)  •  07 Dec 2018

Jwala Gutta: I checked my name online 2-3 weeks ago, my mother's&my names were there, my father's&my sister's were missing. Today we went to cast vote but my name was also missing. I don't understand how's my name missing. I've been living here for 12 yrs.

14:55 PM (IST)  •  07 Dec 2018

With hundreds of people from Hyderabad heading to their native places to cast their votes in the Telangana Assembly elections, the state government decided to exempt them from toll tax. Chief Secretary S.K. Joshi issued orders to this effect following a request from Chief Electoral Officer Rajath Kumar.

14:39 PM (IST)  •  07 Dec 2018

On not being able to cast vote, Jwala Gutta says “I checked my name online 2-3 weeks ago, my mother's & my names were there, my father's & my sister's were missing. Today we went to cast vote but my name was also missing. I don't understand how is my name missing. I've been living here for 12 yrs.”

13:53 PM (IST)  •  07 Dec 2018

Voter turnout recorded till 1 PM in Telangana Elections is 49.15%. In the state, assembly polls in were originally scheduled to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls next year. However, the Legislative Assembly was dissolved prematurely on September six following a recommendation made by the TRS government.

13:50 PM (IST)  •  07 Dec 2018

Former Maoist ideologue and popular revolutionary balladeer Gaddar voted for the first time in his life. Gaddar, 69, cast his vote in Alwal area of Malkajgiri constituency in Greater Hyderabad. Gummadi Vittal Rao, popularly known as Gaddar, had campaigned against electoral politics till last year when he gave up Maoism and announced that he was joining the political mainstream.