Battle of egos as Telangana votes

Though there is little in it for the Congress and the TDP—the K. Chandrasekhar Rao-led Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) is expected to walk away with the major chunk of seats—these two parties have little more than their egos at stake. The Congress has its back to the wall in the region’ 10 districts because the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy Government is accused of reneging on its promise of initiating the process to carve out a separate state. The TDP is walking a tightrope on the T-sentiment. Chandrababu Naidu has not spelt his party’s stance on the issue clearly, preferring to leave it for “consideration later as there are more important issue to dealt with first.”

On Thursday, Khanapur in Adilabad district recorded the highest voter turnout with 68 per cent followed by Jedcherla with 60 per cent turnout till 3 p.m. Urban constituencies reported a low voter turnout. Khairtabad in the heart of Hyderabad city recorded only 34 per cent while Secunderabad recorded 46 per cent.

Polling booths were empty till 11 a.m. in Khairtabad constituency, where P. Vishnuvardhan Reddy of the Congress is contesting. The bypoll had to be held after his father P. Janardhan Reddy’s death.

In some booths, voters had to go back disappointed as their names were missing from the voters’ list. Among those who returned without casting their votes were actor Murli Mohan and his family in Khairtabad constituency. Jedcharla in Medak district, from where YSR kicked off his campaign, recorded brisk polling throughout the day with a turnout of 60 per cent.

The four Lok Sabha constituencies too recorded good turnout with Hanamkonda in Warangal district recording 51 per cent, Karminagar, 40 per cent, Adilabad city 45 per cent and Warangal 50 per cent. TRS chief Chandrasekhar Rao is contesting from Karimnagar. The low turnout in here left the TRS chief a worried man.

The Election Commission ordered a case to be registered against the Chief Minister on charges of violating the code of conduct. The EC has also asked for details on TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu for holding a press conference after the end of campaigning.