Heat turns booths dry

Hyderabad, April 16: The searing summer sun kept many city voters indoors during the first phase of polls held on Thursday. In Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts, people thronged the polling booths early in the morning, before it started getting hot. Almost 35 per cent polling was recorded by 12 pm.

Hundreds of polling booths in the districts wore a deserted look after 2 pm. Even polling agents found it difficult to stay put in the voting centres at noon as the mercury touched 41 degrees Celsius, two degrees higher than previous day.

In 2004, the polling percentage was 69 per cent in Ranga Reddy district. On Thursday, it dropped to almost 60 per cent as per early reports.

Political parties are wary of how the drop in poll percentage would impact the prospects of their candidates. The poll percentage is unlikely to cross 60 percent in several segments.

The Election Commission’s orders to complete the voting process by 4 pm also caused reduction in the poll percentage. In the previous elections, the public were permitted to vote till 5 pm.

“EC officials should have considered the summer factor and continued the old system,” said Mr M. Krishna Kumar, a teacher of Ibrahimpatnam.

Voting percentage in Cyberabad constituencies, however, touched a new high this time with urban voters turning up in good numbers. Ibrahimpatnam Assembly constituency in Cyberabad recorded the largest voting percentage of 77, closely followed by Malkajgiri at 65 per cent.

In all, 15 electronic voting machines malfunctioned in Cyberabad Commissionerate, delaying voting by hours.

At Maheshwaram, three persons were injured in the clash between a Congress agent and Telugu Desam workers while at Medchal, a Congress agent was beaten up by a Telugu Desam agent. At Jeedimetla, a Praja Rajyam agent was beaten up by unknown persons.

Voters protest delimitation

Hyderabad, April 16: Voters in some parts of the state raised their voice against the delimitation process one year after the process was completed. They opted not to cast their vote to mark their protest. Many of the voters are still loyal towards their old constituencies.

Tekula Gudem, the native village of Mr Gummadi Narsaiah, the lone MLA from the CPI (ML-New Democracy) party in the state, in Singareni mandal of Khammam district, has opted not to participate in the polling.

The village was earlier part of the Illendu constituency, the bastion of the revolutionary party. Interestingly, the CPI (ML-New Democracy) party had come out of its anti-Parliamentary democracy plank to contest from the Illendu

Assembly constituency in 1983. It was the only party which changed its revolutionary stand to join mainstream politics. Honouring the party’s decision, Mr Gummadi Narsaiah contested from the segment and won five times. The Tekula Gudem villagers protested shifting the village into Wyra constituency and boycotted the polls. Sitarampuram in Warangal also did not participate in the voting to protest against the delimitation changes. The protests also raised doubts over the transparency in shifting mandals from one segment to another during the delimitation process.