Telangana Elections 2023: Polling at slow pace in Warangal and Karimnagar
Warangal/Karimnagar: Polling began at a slow pace with only a few people turning out to the polling stations in the first two hours in erstwhile Warangal and Karimnagar districts. Incidents of malfunctioning of Electronic Voting Machines was also reported from some polling stations in these districts.
There are 12 assembly segments in the erstwhile Warangal and 13 assembly constituencies in the erstwhile Karimnagar district. In the first three hours of polling, below 10 percent of voting was recorded in most of the assembly segments.
The officials made elaborate arrangements for the smooth conduct of the voting amid tight security at all the polling stations to prevent any untoward incidents. Adequate central and state police forces have been deployed.
Unlike the city areas, a large number of people including the elderly and women were seen eagerly going to the polling station and standing in the queue from 7 am onwards.
In a few polling stations in Madikonda of Hanamkonda district, people were not seen even one and a half hours after the beginning of polling at 7 am.
A tense situation prevailed when the Congress party leaders indulged in an argument with the BRS party leaders alleging that the BRS candidate Palla Rajeswhar Reddy was influencing the voters by spending more time in the polling station in a private high school in the district headquarters of Jangaon. The police intervened and brought the situation under control.
In the Station Ghanpur assembly constituency of Jangaon district, peoplehad to wait for a long time in queues as EVMs were not functioning.
In the Dharmapuri assembly constituency of Jagtial district, polling started 20 minutes late in a polling station due to EVM's technical glitches. In Peddapalli district, it took more than two hours for the officials to repair the EVMs in a polling station at Ramagundam assembly constituency.
In Mahabubabad district, polling started 45 minutes late due to technical issues with EVMs at a polling station in Bayyaram mandal. In the Warangal district of Raiparthy mandal, voters had to wait for more than two hours due to problems of EVMs.
