TSIT ■ Hyderabad
The polling in the Munugodu Assembly byelection in Telangana ended at 6 pm on Thursday.Till 5 PM, the voter turnout was 77.55 per cent and the voting percentage is likely to go up as voters who were still in queue lines at 6 PM will be allowed to exercise their franchise by the election commission.
Out of the total 2,41,805 voters in the Constituency, till 5 pm, 1,87,527 votes were polled and the polling percentage is 77.55 per cent, according to Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj.In 2018, 91.3 percent of polling was recorded in the Munugodu Assembly constituency.At several places, polling was suspended for some time due to technical problems in EVMS where EVMs have been replaced and the problems were rectified by the staff in some EVMs.
Tension prevailed as there was clash between TRS and BJP workers at polling station in Chandur Municipality.
The BJP workers started protesting stating the TRS leaders had prevented the non-locals from being sent out. This led to an argument between the two groups and a clash was ensued.The conflict was resolved with the intervention of the Police.However, BJP candidate Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy expressed anger at the behavior of the police in this process and said that they were siding with the ruling TRS party.The villagers at Rangam Thanda boycotted the voting as they protested that they were no basic facilities and roads in their village.
The bypoll was necessitated after sitting MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy resigned from the Congress to join the BJP in August.He is in the fray on BJP ticket.Altogether 47 candidates, including TRS Candidate Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy and Congress Candidate Palvai Sravanthi Reddy trying their luck in the bypoll.The bypoll has turned out to be a battle of prestige for the TRS, BJP and Congress parties before the Assembly election which is to be held in December 2023.The counting of votes will be taken up on November 6.
