Telangana Assembly Elections: Voting begins in all 119 seats
The ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi is seeking a third term, while the Opposition Congress is looking to win another southern state after Karnataka.
Hyderabad: The ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi is seeking a third term in Telangana, while the Opposition Congress is looking to win another southern state after Karnataka. The Bharatiya Janata Party is seeking to gain a foothold in Telangana as part of its efforts to expand its influence in southern India.
The Assembly election will decide the fate of 2,290 candidates from 109 national and regional parties. The state has 3.26 crore voters who are eligible to exercise their franchise across 35,655 polling stations.
Around 2.5 lakh government staffers will be engaged in election duties. The Election Commission has ordered all private establishments, including information technology companies, to remain closed on Thursday for citizens to vote.
Among the key candidates in the Assembly election are Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, his son and state minister KT Rama Rao, Congress’ Telangana chief A Revanth Reddy and BJP MPs Bandi Sanjay Kumar and D Arvind.
K Chandrashekar Rao is contesting from two constituencies – his home turf Gajwel and Kamareddy. A Revanth Reddy will take on the chief minister in Kamareddy and will also contest from his home constituency of Kodangal.
The BJP has fielded MLA T Raja Singh, accused in several hate speech cases, from the Goshamahal constituency. Singh was suspended in August last year for his remarks about Prophet Muhammad, but the suspension was revoked in October.
