More than 4.14 crore voters were eligible to cast their votes in the elections for 175-member Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats in the single-phase polling…reports Asian Lite News
Andhra Pradesh recorded 81.86 per cent polling in simultaneous elections to the state Assembly and Lok Sabha conducted on Monday, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) M. K. Meena announced on Wednesday.
Announcing the final polling figures at a news conference, he said 80.66 per cent of voters cast their votes in polling stations while 1.2 per cent polled their votes through postal ballot.
The CEO said that compared to previous elections, the polling figure has gone up by 2.09 per cent. In 2019, the state had recorded a voter turnout of 79.77 per cent while in 2014, it was 78.41 per cent.
He revealed that polling in 3,500 polling stations continued even after 6 p.m. as those standing in queues were allowed to cast votes. The last polling station completed the process at 2 a.m.
Meena said polling in some places was delayed due to rains. He said observers analysed the polling process and all the reports and they have not taken any decision to conduct re-polling anywhere.
More than 4.14 crore voters were eligible to cast their votes in the elections for 175-member Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats in the single-phase polling.
The Darsi Assembly segment received the highest polling at 90.91 per cent while the lowest, at 63.32 per cent, was recorded in Tirupati.
Among Lok Sabha constituencies, Ongole saw the highest turnout of 87.06 per cent while Visakhapatnam recorded the lowest, at 71.11 per cent.
The Election Commission had Tuesday put the overall polling figure at 78.36%. Enthusiasm among voters marked the polling in the southern state as an estimated six lakh people living in neighbouring states of Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and other parts of the country came to their native places to cast their votes.
Some even came from abroad to participate in the polling process. Election authorities had set up 46,389 polling centres across the state. The voters decided the political fortunes of 2,841 candidates.
Chief Minister and YSR Congress Party president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief and former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, Jana Sena leader and actor Pawan Kalyan were among 2,387 candidates for 175 Assembly seats.
For 25 Lok Sabha seats, 454 contestants are in the fray and the prominent among them were state BJP chief and former Union Minister D. Purandeswari (Rajahmundry), state Congress President Y. S. Sharmila Reddy (Kadapa), and former Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy (BJP, Rajampet).
The CEO said that the EVMs have been kept under tight security at 350 strong rooms across the state. Counting of votes will be taken up on June 4.
Cong, BRS, BJP confident of winning majority in Telangana
All three major parties in Telangana — Congress, BRS, and the BJP — on Tuesday claimed that they will win a majority of Lok Sabha seats in the state.
A day after polling for all 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state, the ruling Congress, opposition BRS, and the BJP claimed that they will bag most of the seats.
While the Congress and BJP exuded confidence of winning 12 seats, the BRS claimed that it would bag more seats than the two national parties.
Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy is confident that the Congress would emerge victorious on 12-13 seats while BJP national vice-president D.K. Aruna claimed that his party will win 12 seats.
Aruna, who contested from Mahabubnagar constituency, was also confident of her victory. BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao said that his party will win more Lok Sabha seats than the Congress and BJP.
He claimed that the ruling Congress is facing unprecedented resentment from all sections of people as it failed to deliver on its promises made to farmers, women and other sections in the Assembly elections.
He also claimed that neither the BJP-led NDA nor the Congress-led INDIA bloc will get a clear majority at the Centre. Regional parties like the BRS, the YSR Congress Party and the Biju Janata Dal which are not part of the two alliances will play a decisive role in the formation of the next government, he told media persons at Sircilla.
KTR said despite some BRS leaders defecting to the Congress and BJP for their political gains, the BRS cadre worked hard with unwavering commitment to the victory of the party candidates.
Meanwhile, BJP MP K. Laxman claimed that the voting trend shows that people are determined to make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister for a third time. “It was a one-sided voting in favour of Modi Ji. The polling percentage is also favourable for the BJP,” he said.
Laxman stated that it was a pro-incumbency vote. “Usually after two terms of a government, there will be anti-incumbency but since Modi Ji implemented whatever he promised and promised only what can be delivered, people trusted him. He did not promise freebies like the Congress party to lure voters,” he said.
Laxman claimed that people feel only PM Modi can steer India on the path of development. He believes that in four phases of polls conducted so far, the BJP got a clear majority. He exuded confidence that the BJP will get 370 seats while NDA will cross the 400 mark. The BJP MP also claimed that the Congress will not get the status of the main opposition.