Telangana goes to vote: 20.64% voter turnout till 11AM; Naga Chaitanya, Nagarjuna cast votes [Key updates]

The youngest state of India goes to vote for 119 seats today. The voting began at 7.00 am during the final leg of the five-state assembly polls comprising Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, MP and Rajasthan, apart from Telangana. The state will see an interesting and tough contest between its key players comprising Indian National Congress (INC) and the incumbent Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), apart from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). For the fate of 2,290 candidates, as many as 35,655 polling booths have been set up where nearly 3.3 crore voters are eligible to vote. Reportedly, a staff of over 2.5 lakh has been deployed for poll duties.

Highlights

Till 9.00 am, 8.52 per cent voter turnout was recorded, which improved marginally to 20.64% by 11.a.m.

The ruling BRS has fielded candidates for all the 119 seats, while the BJP is contesting 111 seats independently, and 8 along with actor Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena. The Congress is contesting 118 seats and has additionally allocated one seat to its ally, the Communist Party of India (CPI).

Since the imposition of the model code of conduct, reportedly the law enforcement agencies have seized assets worth approximately Rs 738 crore, which includes cash, gold, liquor and free goodies.

The key players among the contestants include Chief Minister KCR, who for the first time in his political career is contesting from two constituencies. His son KT Rama Rao, Congress President A Revanth, BJP's Bandi Sanjay Kumar and D Arvind are other key players.

All the political parties have campaigned, fielded some of the MP's and left no stone turned to sway the voter turnout in their favor.

The results for all the five states will be announced on December 3, while the exit polls will be released soon after the voting is over in Telangana at 6p.m.

The Chief Electoral Officer Vikar Raj informed, the polling will start at 7 am and conclude at 5 pm in 106 constituencies. "The polling will end at 4 pm in 13 Left Wing Extremism affected areas. More than 250,000 staff will be engaged in poll duties for the assembly elections."

As per the data released by ECI, the average voter turnout for the 2018 Telangana Assembly elections was 73.7 per cent.

While social media hinted at polling being largely peaceful till noon, a minor clash erupted between workers of BRS and Congress in Rangareddy district. In a short clip of the incident, shared on social media, the police can be seen taking control of the situation before it could escalate any further.

A few celebs voting received attention as usual, with actor Naga Chaitanya, veteran Nagarjuna along with his wife Amala Akkineni arriving to cast their vote at a polling booth at Government Working Women's Hostel in Jubilee Hills.

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