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Around 57.91% of the nearly 2.88 lakh voters exercised their franchise in the election to Khammam Municipal Corporation (KMC) held in the midst of a COVID surge on Friday.
The perceived fear appeared to have impacted the electoral participation as was evident from the relatively low voter turnout compared to the previous election.
Amid tight security and COVID safety precautions, the election was held for 59 wards of the total 60 in the KMC from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday. TRS candidate Madhuri had already been elected from the 10th ward unopposed (unanimously).
Sporadic incidents of minor clashes between TRS and Congress workers in 55th and 57th divisions were reported. Police chased away a group of agitated Congress cadre when they tried to stage a sit-in on the road in 57th division in protest against alleged bogus voting at a polling booth at the NSP camp area.
An agitated Congress worker created a flutter by dousing himself with petrol demanding action against those allegedly resorting to ‘electoral malpractices’.
A commotion broke out near a polling booth in the 20th division when a group of BJP cadres tried to stage a dharna against what they termed ‘largescale bogus voting’ and ‘misuse of power’ by some ruling party local leaders. Police swiftly intervened and brought the situation under control.
Prominent among those who cast their votes in the initial hours of Friday were Transport Minister P. Ajay Kumar, Khammam MP Nama Nageswara Rao, and Collector R.V. Karnan.
The KMC election witnessed a keen contest between the TRS-CPI combine, Congress-CPI (M) alliance and the BJP-Jana Sena Party (JSP) combine. TRS fielded its candidates from 57 wards leaving three wards to its ally the CPI as part of a pre-poll alliance to retain the ULB.
Meanwhile, the ballot boxes were shifted to the strong rooms at the SR&BGNR Government Degree and PG College in the town where the sealed boxes were kept under tight security. Counting of votes will be taken up on May 3 and the results will be declared on the same day.
Polling in Siddipet
The election for Siddipet municipality was held peacefully on Friday.
Polls were held for as many as 43 wards in the municipality of 1,00,678 voters.
A polling percentage of 67.18 was recorded till 5 p.m., which was only 13.13% till 9 a.m. As many as 67,636 people cast their votes, out of which 34,556 were men and 33,075 women.
Finance Minister Harish Rao, MLC Farooq Hussain, and Commissioner of Police D. Joyal Davis did cast their votes in one of the 130 polling stations established in the town. District Collector P. Venkatrama Reddy visited several polling stations along with general observer Vasam Venkateswarlu, Additional Collector Muzammil Khan, and Assistant Commissioner G. Narsaiah.
He examined the arrangements of the strong room and counting at Indur Engineering College. Only agents, contested candidates and media representatives would be allowed in the counting centres. General public was advised to stay 500 metres away from the counting centres.
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