Telangana registered 62.69% polling in first phase

Telangana registered 62.69 per cent polling in the elections to all 17 Lok Sabha seats held on Thursday.

The office of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on Friday announced the final polling figures. The officials had earlier put the turnout at 60.57 per cent.

Khammam recorded highest voter turnout of 75.28 per cent, while Hyderabad was the lowest at 44.75 per cent. In Secunderabad, 46.26 per cent cast their votes.

The figures for Secunderabad and Hyderabad were earlier reported to be 39.20 per cent and 39.49 per cent, respectively. Officials said the polling figures were revised after receipt of reports from all polling stations.

Five constituencies recorded over 70 per cent polling.

Nizamabad, which created a record with use of 12 electronic voting machines (EVMs) in each polling booth to accommodate 185 candidates, saw a turnout of 68.33 per cent. As many as 178 farmers entered the fray here to highlight their problems including lack of remunerative prices for their produce. Telangana Chief Minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) President K. Chandrashekhar Rao's daughter K. Kavitha is seeking re-election from Nizamabad.

Polling at all 46,120 polling stations was smooth and peaceful. Nearly 2.97 crore voters were eligible to cast their votes to decide the fortunes of 443 candidates, including 25 women.

The polling percentage has come down compared to Assembly elections. The turnout was 73.20 per cent in the Assembly polls held in December 2018. The turnout was 72.31 per cent in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

--IANS

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