Hyderabad Civic Polls: After Heavyweights Campaigns, Stage Set For GHMC Elections, Voting To Be Done By Ballot Paper

The Telangana State Election Commission (SEC) has made elaborate arrangements for the balloting process by deploying 48,000 (including reserve) polling personnel and 52,500 strong police force.

Representative Image(Image: PTI)

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, the fifth-largest metropolitan city area in the country, will go to polls on Tuesday, after witnessing massive rallies and campaigns in the state. Over 74 lakh voters will decide the political fortunes of 1,122 candidates in 150 divisions in one of the most bitterly fought polls for any municipal body in recent times. The polling will commence at 7 am and conclude at 6 pm at 9,101 polling stations. There are 150 wards in all in the corporation, and the mayor’s post is reserved for a woman this time. The GHMC is in charge of the civic administration and infrastructure of Hyderabad. In the 2016 elections, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi had won 44 seats. The TRS had pocketed 99 seats while the BJP secured just 4 seats. The TDP and Congress won two seats each. The GHMC, with a population of more than one crore, has 74,67,256 voters, including 38,89,637 male and 35,76,941 female voters, besides 687 transgenders. There will be 9,101 polling stations for a total number of 150 divisions.

Only ballot paper:

Elections would be conducted with the ballot papers in view of Covid-19 pandemic, according to the state Election Commission officials. In view of Covid-19 situation, the authorities have sanitised every polling station and have made it mandatory for all the voters to use a sanitiser before entering the polling station. The authorities have also made arrangements to maintain social distancing in the queue. Voters, who have been issued Elector's Photo Identity Card (EPIC), have to produce it to exercise their franchise when they arrive at the polling station for voting.

Those, who are unable to produce their EPICs, will have to produce any one of the 18 alternative photo identity card documents to establish their identity. Photo voter slips will not be considered as an alternate identification document.

Voter slips were distributed to all the electors by the booth-level officers.

“During the process of identification of a voter, they are required to lower the facemask for identification, when required. At any given time, only one voter shall be allowed to stand in front of each polling official maintaining social distance,” Parthasarathy said. The GHMC elections have been into a prestige battle by all the major political parties – TRS, BJP, AIMIM and the Congress. In the last elections in December 2015, the first after the formation of Telangana, the TRS had won 99 out of 150 seats and its alliance partner AIMIM had bagged 44 seats.