Hyderabad: Voters’ apathy marked polling in Greater Hyderabad as the Lok Sabha constituencies of Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Malkajgiri, and Chevella recorded the lowest turnout in Telangana in that order.
Despite appeals by the political parties and all efforts by the election authorities, the urban voters remained indifferent.
The Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency recorded the lowest turnout in the state at 39.17 per cent till 5 p.m., as per the figures released by the Election Commission, far below the state’s average turnout of 62.48 per cent. In 2019, Hyderabad had recorded 45 per cent polling.
The figures are all provisional as the final numbers will be released by the poll panel on Tuesday.
The Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency recorded the second lowest polling at 42.48 per cent, marking a dip of 3 per cent compared to the 2019 polls.
Malkajgiri, which is India’s largest constituency with 37.80 lakh voters, also failed to cross the 50 per cent polling mark. The seat, termed ‘mini-India’ with people from various states and speaking different languages settled here, saw 49.60 per cent polling, almost at par with 2019 figures.
Only 50.34 per cent voters cast their votes in the by-election for the Secunderabad Cantonment Assembly constituency, one of the seven segments under Malkajgiri.
The Chevella constituency, which covers key urban clusters including the information technology district of Cyberabad, recorded 53.15 per cent polling, the fourth lowest in the state.
The Serilingampally segment, which has the highest number of software professionals, saw only 41.40 per cent turnout. It is part of the Chevella Lok Sabha constituency.
Many techies apparently skipped polling after packing off their bags for extended holidays.
The low turnout was despite pleasant weather as recent rains and clouds considerably brought down the maximum temperature. While polling centres in some segments saw queues from early in the morning, the booths were deserted in the majority of the segments.
Among the Assembly segments in the Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency, Malakpet recorded lowest polling at 37.84 per cent, Charminar recorded 38 per cent turnout, while Chandrayangutta witnessed 38.24 per cent voting, followed by Karwan at 40.57 per cent.
Nampally, a part of the Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency, recorded only 37.30 per cent turnout. The polling percentage in Jubilee Hills segment was 39.38 per cent.
After the polling on Monday, various sections have been voicing concerns over the declining poll percentage in the urban segments.
The Election Commission had roped in celebrities while the NGOs organised various programmes to appeal to people to come out and exercise their franchise in large numbers.
During the campaign, the political parties and candidates had also urged people to participate in the polling process in large numbers. However, these appeals had little impact on the urban voters.
Like in the past, the majority of the voters in the four Lok Sabha constituencies enjoyed the holiday declared for polling, but stayed away from the election process.
Union Minister and state BJP chief G. Kishan Reddy said one reason for the low turnout this year may be that polling in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were held on the same day.
He pointed out that a large number of people left for the neighbouring state to cast votes in the simultaneous elections to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly on Monday.
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