Polling underway in Telangana; Renuka Chowdary, Owaisi among those in fray

Polling was underway in 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in Telangana on Thursday, where former Union minister Renuka Chowdary and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi are among the prominent candidates who are in fray.

Polling in 16 constituencies began at 7 am, while voting process in Nizamabad started at 8 am. Over 2.97 crore voters would decide the fate of 443 candidates in the state.

In 13 Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-effected Assembly segments under five parliamentary constituencies polling would be held from 7 am to 4 pm.

In Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency, where 185 candidates, including more than 170 farmers, are in the fray, voting began from 8 am as mock polling took more time compared to other constituencies in view of the large number of candidates.

The farmers have entered the fray in large numbers to highlight their demand for remunerative price to turmeric and red jowar. The Election Commission decided to conduct polling in Nizamabad with EVMs despite the large number of candidates and made arrangements accordingly.

Former Union minister and Congress leader Renuka Chowdary (Khammam), AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi (Hyderabad), state Congress chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy (Nalgonda), the party's working presidents A Revanth Reddy (Malkajgiri) and Ponnam Prabhakar (Karimnagar), sitting TRS MP K Kavitha (Nizamabad) are among the prominent candidates in the fray.

As many as 145 companies of central paramilitary forces, besides over 55,000 state police have been deployed.