HYDERABAD: Megastar Chiranjeevi arrived with his family to cast their votes at the polling booth in Jubilee Hills in Hyderabad on Thursday. He could be seen standing with his wife Surekha Konidala and daughter Sreeja Konidela polling in the queue to cast their vote.
The megastar has in the past been involved in politics. In 2008, Chiranjeevi started Praja Rajyam Party, in the then united state of Andhra Pradesh. In the 2009 general elections, the party won 18 of the 294 seats in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly.
In 2011, Chiranjeevi merged the Praja Rajyam Party with the Indian National Congress. He was nominated to Rajya Sabha on 29 March 2012. and was made MoS in Ministry of Tourism. Since the 2014 elections, he has stayed away from active politics. Notably, polling began amid elaborate arrangements in all 119 Assembly constituencies in Telangana on Thursday morning. Voting began at 7 am and will conclude at 6 pm.
As many as 2,290 candidates from 109 national and regional parties including 221 women and one transgender are in the fray. Their fate will be decided by a total of 3.17 crore voters.
A total of 103 legislators are re-contesting this time, most of them from the ruling Bharat Rasthra Samithi (BRS). Voters would exercise their franchise at 35,655 polling stations set up across the state. For the first time in Telangana, a home voting facility is being provided to persons with disabilities and voters above 80 years of age.
Home voting for citizens aged over 80 years and persons with disabilities has also been made available, with about 27,600 voters enlisted to avail of the service on Thursday. About 1,000 other voters have also registered for the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System.
Meanwhile, on the Cine front, Chiranjeevi will be seen in a fantasy entertainer titled ‘Mega 156’. The fantasy flick, which is the first of its kind signed by the megastar after a long while, will be directed by Vassishta, who made his directorial debut with ‘Bimbisara’.
‘Mega 156’ is to be shot on a massive scale by V Vamsi Krishna Reddy, Pramod Uppalapati, and Vikram Reddy under the banner of UV Creations. (ANI)