Hyderabad: Necessary arrangements have been made for the counting of votes polled in the election to the 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in Telangana, with about 10,000 personnel geared up to take part in the exercise on Tuesday, June 4, officials said.
The counting of votes will begin at 8 am on Tuesday at 34 centres.
The counting of postal ballots and votes cast in EVMs would start at 8 am in all constituencies. Postal ballots would be counted in separate halls.
A three-layer security cordon has been put in place and 12 companies of central forces have been deployed for strongroom security.
The counting of votes polled in the by-poll held for the Secunderabad Cantonment assembly constituency would also begin at 8 am on June 4.
Polling for the 17 Lok Sabha seats and the Secunderabad Cantonment Assembly by-poll was held on May 13.
Telangana had recorded a 66.3 per cent voter turnout for the Lok Sabha polls and the main contest is between the ruling Congress, the BRS, and the BJP.
In the 2019 polls, the BRS won nine seats, while the BJP won four, the Congress bagged three, and AIMIM one.
Union Minister G Kishan Reddy and sitting MPs Bandi Sanjay and D Arvind are prominent candidates from the BJP. The key contenders from Congress include former union minister Balram Naik, from BRS former IPS officer R S Praveen Kumar, and AIMIM its party chief Asaduddin Owaisi.
Telangana Chief Minister and TPCC president A Revanth Reddy on Monday held a teleconference with the party’s contestants and gave them the necessary instructions about the counting process.
According to Congress party sources, Revanth Reddy instructed the candidates to appoint sincere people as their counting agents at the centres.
The by-poll for the Secunderabad Cantonment assembly constituency was necessitated due to the death of sitting BRS MLA G Lasya Nanditha in a road accident earlier this year.
As many as 8,600 FIRs were filed over Model Code of Conduct (MCC) violations during the poll campaign for the 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in Telangana, according to data issued by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer.
Law enforcement agencies seized Rs 320.84 crore worth of cash, freebies, and other articles till May 11.
The Election Commission on May 1 reprimanded Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) President K Chandrashekar Rao and barred him from campaigning for 48 hours for his “objectionable” remarks against the Congress.
The EC said that Chandrasekhar Rao’s remarks at a press conference in Sircilla on April 5 were violative of the provisions of the MCC and its advisories.
A case was registered by election authorities against BJP candidate for Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat K Madhavi Latha on May 13 after a video clip in which she was purportedly asking burqa-clad women voters to reveal their faces and check their ID cards surfaced.
Earlier, on April 20 a FIR was registered here against Madhavi Latha following a complaint that she hurt the sentiments of the Muslim community by making a gesture of shooting an arrow towards a mosque.
in May, the Telangana police had registered an FIR against BJP leader and Amravati MP Navneet Rana for her alleged comments that “a vote for Congress is a vote for Pakistan”, under sections related to poll code violations.
As many as 2,342 complaints were received through C-Vigil and 511 complaints were received through the 1950 call centre.
