65 per cent turnout in Warangal bypoll

A healthy 65 per cent polling was reported today in the by-election to Warangal (SC) Lok Sabha constituency in Telangana, which witnessed a multi- cornered contest among the ruling TRS, Opposition Congress, BJP-TDP combine and YSR Congress Party (YSRCP). The polling was by and large peaceful. Citing information available till around 6 PM, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Bhanwar Lal told PTI that the final voting figure would be more than 65 per cent. The polling passed off peacefully without any untoward incident reported from the constituency, about 130 km from here, he said. Polling began at 7 AM amid tight security and voters who were in queue at 5 PM (closing time for balloting) were allowed to exercise their franchise. In morning, polling officials welcomed the first voters at several booths by giving them flowers to encourage the electorate to turn up in large numbers. There are 15,09,671 voters in the constituency - 7,57,231 men and 7,52,293 women, according to the CEO. Among the 1,778 polling stations, 642, 498 and 33 were identified as sensitive, hyper-sensitive and left wing extremism-affected booths, respectively. Tight security arrangements were made, especially in the sensitive and left wing extremism-affected booths, to ensure free and fair polls for which 7,606 policemen were deployed. The counting of votes would take place on November 24. In the 2014 general elections, 76.15 per cent voting was recorded in the Parliamentary constituency. The by-election was necessitated following the resignation of TRS MP Kadiam Srihari after he became Deputy Chief Minister of Telangana. Srihari had won the election with a margin of more than three lakh votes.