Polling in Karimnagar Rose Steadily Despite Summer Heat

Karimnagar: The polling in the Karimnagar parliament constituency started at a slow pace in the morning and its tempo increased by the afternoon on Monday. The voting percentage was at 67.67 by the end of polling at 6 pm.

The voting percentage was at 10.01 by 9 am. It increased to 45.11 per cent at 11 am and to 58.24 per cent by 3 pm. Braving the scorching sun, voters came out of their homes and exercised their franchise.

The election returning officer, district collector Pamela Satpathy, closely observed the polling process by visiting some of the polling stations and keeping an eye on the webcasting from time to time.

Of the seven assembly segments under Karimnagar LS, the highest voting percentage was recorded in the Husnabad assembly segment, 73.63; followed by the Vemulawada assembly segment with 71.26 per cent, Manakondur with 71.11 per cent and Karimnagar assembly segment with 55.82 percent polling.

Surprisingly, the top three assembly segments -- Husnabad, Vemulawada, and Manakondur in which the highest voting percentage was recorded -- were represented by Congress MLAs -- transport minister Ponnam Prabhakar, government chief whip Aadi Srinivas and DCC president Kavvampalli Satyanarayana respectively.

Candidates for the Karimnagar LS constituency number 28, but the main battle is between the nominees of the Congress, BJP, and BRS.

As many as 17.97,150 persons voted in the 2,194 polling stations across the parliament constituency under tight police security. Around 10,200 cops were on duty.

BJP candidate Bandi Sanjay Kumar exercised his franchise at Jyothi Nagar and Congress candidate Velichala Rajendar along with his family members cast their votes at a polling station in the Christian colony. BRS party candidate B Vinod Kumar along with his family members voted at the Urdu Medium High School in Mukurumpura colony in Karimnagar city.

Transport minister Ponnam Prabhakar and his family members exercised their franchise at the government high school in Husnabad town.

Officials of the election flying squad conducted raids on the house of BRS party’s 16th ward councilor Gudla Srinivas in Sircilla municipality and seized liquor stocks worth`25,000 kept for distribution to voters.

Tension prevailed for some time, when voters expressed anger at the polling officials after waiting in queues for two hours as the EVMs stopped functioning after 245 votes were polled, out of the total 718 votes at polling station 101 at Katta Lingapet village in Chandurthi mandal of Rajanna Sircilla district.

Polling officer Shankar explained to the voters that the control unit suddenly failed to operate, because of which EVMs stopped working. After some time, the officials replaced it with new EVMs, and the polling process was resumed.

BJP’s Karimnagar parliament convener B Praveen Rao lodged a complaint with the Election Commission, seeking immediate action against some Congress workers who were “indirectly canvassing votes by wearing T-shirts on which it was printed, Vote for the Congress party candidate on serial number-4.” This was a violation of the Model Code of Conduct, the complainant said.

The police seized unaccounted money of Rs 9.10 crore under the Karimnagar parliament constituency, including Rs 2.16 crore worth of liquor and Rs 4 crore worth of dry ganja. Around 16 cases were registered for violation of the poll code, under the parliament constituency limits.