HYDERABAD: Bharat Rashtra Samithi supremo and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao cast his vote at a polling booth in Medak district on Thursday as polling for the 119-member assembly is underway.
CM Rao and his wife, Shobha Rao, cast their votes at a polling station in Chintamadaka, Siddipet. The incumbent Chief Minister, KCR, is contesting from two seats: his original seat, Gajwel, and Kamareddy.
In the 2018 elections, KCR secured a victory in Gajwel by over 58,000 votes. This time, he faces BJP leader Etela Rajender in Gajwel and Congress state unit chief Revanth Reddy in Kamareddy. Voting is under way at various polling booths across the state amid heavy security arrangements.
Voters are exercising their franchise at 35,655 polling stations set up across the state. For the first time in Telangana, 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. 20.64 pc voter turnout has been recorded in Telangana till 11 am, as per Election Commission of India.
About 1,000 other voters have also registered for the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System, according to a poll official.
Meanwhile, BRS leader K Kavitha, Telangana minister and BRS MLA KT Rama Rao, state Congress chief Revanth Reddy, and others cast their votes.
In the first assembly polls in 2014 for the newly created state of Telanagana, the Congress got 25.20 per cent votes and BRS (then TRS) got 34 per cent in the Telangana area. In 2018, BRS (then Telangana Rashtra Samithi) won 88 of the 119 seats and had 47.4 per cent of the vote share. The Congress came a distant second with just 19 seats.
The counting of votes, along with that in four other states will be taken up on December 3. (ANI)