Polling begins in GHMC polls

Polling for the GHMC civic body has begun on an encouraging note, with office-goers and homemakers reaching polling booths to avoid long queues later in the day.

About 75 lakh voters, including 38.89 lakh men, 35.76 lakh women and 678 others, are likely cast their votes today in over 9,000 polling stations. As many as 36,000 polling staff will oversee the process; over 50,000 police personnel have been deployed.

Also read: Hyderabad civic body goes to polls on Tuesday

As many as 1,122 candidates are in the fray for 150 wards in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections.

While the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is contesting in all the wards, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is contesting in 149, the Congress in 146, and the MIM in 51 wards.

The polling, which started at 7 am, will close at 6 pm today.

The TRS is putting all its efforts to retain power in the civic body, while the BJP, which upset the TRS by defeating it in the recent byelection to the Dubbak assembly seat, is making all-out efforts to wrest power from the ruling party.

Holiday fear

Thousands of people from the neighbouring States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have left for their native places last week to cash in on a streak of four consecutive holidays, which ends today (the polling day).

Also read: BJP knows only Jumla, hamla, says KT Rama Rao

The political parties are a worried lot, wondering whether they will be back today to cast their votes.