Arrangements were in place for polling to elect councils to 11 municipalities in former Adilabad district on Wednesday. The highest number of municipalities, six to be precise, are in Mancherial while there are three in Nirmal and one each in Kumram Bheem Asifabad and Adilabad districts.
Of the six in Mancherial district, the municipalities of Chennur, Kyathanpalli, Naspur and Luxettipet are new as is Khanapur municipality in Nirmal district. Voters in these areas will be voting in an urban local body (ULB) election for the first time.
A total of 2,49,175 voters in Mancherial will exercise their franchise in these municipalities. The cumulative number of polling stations is 378 while 2,862 polling staff will conduct the election.
In Adilabad ULB, the oldest of the lot, nearly 1.28 lakh voters will exercise their franchise at 183 polling stations. Similarly, in Mancherial district, Nirmal, Bhainsa and Khanapur will see over 1.47 lakh voters cast vote at the 217 polling stations.
Karimnagar (Telangana) 21/01/2020:
950 candidates
Over 950 candidates are in the fray for the 200 wards across nine urban local bodies in the erstwhile Warangal district.
In Bhupalpally municipality, a total of 30 wards, except one which was unanimous in favour of ruling TRS, would be go to the polls. The Congress and TRS are the main rivals.
At Parkal municipality, the ruling party cornered 11 wards unanimously out of the total 22 wards. In Mahabubabad, where the Left parties, Congress and BJP are in the fray, 30 wards would go to polls except one that went in favour of TRS.In Donarkal municipality, one was unanimous and 14 wards would see election. At Maripeda, one was unanimous and 14 wards would go go to polls while at Thorrur municipality, two were unanimous and the contest is for 13 wards.
At Narasampet municipality, all 24 wards would go to polls. In Jangaon municipality, polling would be held for all the 30 wards. At Wardhannapet, 12 wards would go to polls. In the erstwhile Medak district, arrangements were in place. In Sangareddy, seven municipalities — Sangareddy, Sadashivapet, Andol-Jogipet, Narayanakhed, Tellapur, Bollaram and Ameenpur — would go to polls. The police are focusing on Sangareddy, Sadashivapet and Bollaram municipalities owing to the prevailing political conditions. The fight is mainly between Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the Congress.
In Medak district there are four municipalities – Medak, Narsapur, Toopran and Ramayampet — going to polls. Out of the 150 polling stations, 51 are hypersensitive and additional police forces are being deployed there.
In Siddipet district, four municipalities – Husnabad, Cheriayal, Dubbak and Gajwel- Pragnapur — would see election. There are a total 72 wards out of which three wards got unanimous election. Meanwhile, Municipal Administration director T.K. Sridevi and Collector M. Hanumantha Rao visited Tara Degree college and examined the arrangements.
No cell phones
Karimnagar district election authorities strictly banned carrying of cell phone, matchbox and lighter etc into the polling stations.
The police imposed section 144 at all polling stations and would not allow assembling of party activists or luring of voters in front of polling stations. They warned the parties of seizure of vehicles if they used them for transporting voters to polling stations.
Elections would be held in Kothapalli, Choppadandi, Jammikunta and Huzurabad municipalities in Karimnagar district.
Collector K Shashanka and Commissioner of Police VB Kamalasan Reddy visited the distribution centres and inspected the arrangements at the strong-rooms for storage of ballot boxes.
