GHMC polls updates: Polling underway in 150 seats; Owaisi, KT Rama Rao cast their votes

Polling for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) commenced at 7 am on Tuesday and can go on until 6 within the night. Over 7.four million individuals are exercising their franchise within the fifth largest metropolitan metropolis space of India. As many as 1,122 candidates are within the fray for 150 constituencies.

The counting of votes will happen on December four and outcomes will probably be declared within the night. This 12 months’s election is witnessing voting by means of the paper poll system somewhat than the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

On Tuesday morning, folks have been seen lined up at numerous polling cubicles to solid their votes. Union minister G Kishan Reddy voted on the Deeksha Modern School in Kachiguda.

Meanwhile, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi solid his vote on the St Faiz High School in Hyderabad, which is among the many a number of polling cubicles designated this 12 months. Telangana minister and TRS chief KT Rama Rao was additionally seen exercising his franchise.

 

Other prime officers who voted embody, Cyberabad police commissioner V C Sajjannar, Hyderabad police commissioner Anjani Kumar, Telangana excessive court docket chief justice Rajendra Singh Chowhan and lots of others.

In view of the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) in India, polling cubicles have been sanitised and areas have been marked inside and outdoors the cubicles to make sure social distancing. It is obligatory for voters to sanitise their fingers and put on masks/face coverings earlier than casting their votes together with sustaining social distancing whereas standing in queues.

The events that are preventing to emerge victorious within the municipal polls are the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), AIMIM, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Congress Party. But, the direct contest is between the TRS, BJP and the AIMIM.

 

TRS gained in 2015 because it secured 99 seats out of the full 150. The AIMIM which was in alliance with the TRS gained 44 seats and the BJP-TDP alliance gained 5 seats. The Congress might solely handle to win 2 seats.

The star campaigners for 2020 have been Union dwelling minister Amit Shah, Asaduddin Owaisi, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, KT Rama Rao amongst many others.

Home minister Amit Shah, who earlier held an hour-long highway present at Warasiguda in Secunderabad, mentioned on November 29 that Hyderabad was an integral a part of the nation and added the capital metropolis of Telangana would do away with Nizam tradition if the BJP wins. Shah additionally highlighted that the mayor of Hyderabad would even be from the BJP.

Adityanath stirred up an issue after he pitched for naming Hyderabad as Bhavyanagar. At a roadshow in Malkajgiri division, he mentioned that names of Allahabad and Faizabad have been additionally modified after the BJP got here into energy in Uttar Pradesh.

Earlier, Owaisi had slammed the BJP’s marketing campaign by saying that the occasion deployed so many leaders as if a Prime Minister was being elected. “It doesn’t look like a Hyderabad election, it’s as if we’re electing a Prime Minister in place of Narendra Modi,” he mentioned.