Hyderabad: Polling for the Jubilee Hills Assembly by-election began on Tuesday morning, November 11 and will continue until 6 pm. A total of 4.01 lakh registered voters are eligible to cast their votes across 407 polling stations set up in the constituency.
The by-election was necessitated following the death of sitting MLA Maganti Gopinath of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). Though 58 candidates are contesting, the main triangular contest is between Sunitha, wife of the late MLA representing BRS, Naveen Yadav from the Congress, and Lanka Deepak Reddy from the BJP.
Counting on November 14
Officials have scheduled the counting of votes for November 14.
Voter turnout is being closely watched, as it could play a decisive role in the outcome. In previous Assembly elections, Jubilee Hills recorded 50.18% polling in 2014, 45.59% in 2018, and 47.58% in 2023.
During the Lok Sabha elections, the constituency witnessed relatively lower participation, with voter turnout at 39.89% in 2019 and 45.59% in 2024.
Police deployed
Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Commissioner R V Karnan, who is the District Election Officer, said all arrangements have been made for smooth conduct of polling in compliance with the Election Commission’s guidelines.
About 1,800 police force, besides central security force personnel would be deployed for the polling.
“For the first time, drone surveillance is being deployed at all polling locations, for centralised aerial monitoring and real-time situation analysis,” an officilal release said.
The Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad City is deploying “striking forces” to ensure adequate security at all the polling stations and mobile squads to monitor the law and order. CRPF is deployed in 68 polling station locations.
Web-casting is arranged at all polling stations for real-time monitoring, it said.
Transportation of EVMs using GPS fitted vehicles will be continuously monitored from the Control Room. Any faulty polling equipment would be replaced with functional reserve equipment, as per ECI guidelines, it said.
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