By about 10 a.m. on Thursday, the first close-to-clear trends in the election results will be flashed across the display boards and the television sets.
All eyes are on the Gajuwaka Assembly constituency. For, this is the second constituency from where actor and JSP president ‘Power Star’ Pawan Kalyan is contesting. He is also in the fray from the Bhimavaram constituency. The outcome of his political debut is being keenly awaited by his fans.
More than the JSP’s fortunes, everybody is eager to know about Mr. Pawan’s result.
Mr. Pawan Kalyan is pitted against two formidable leaders – TDP MLA Palla Srinivasa Rao and YSRCP’s Tippala Nagi Reddy.
Gajuwaka has the largest electorate density in the State, with over 3.09 lakh voters. But the polling percentage just touched the 65% mark. This means that about 2.08 lakh voters have cast their votes.
Political analysts have termed the turnout as low, which makes the contest even more interesting.
Will the ‘Power Star’ magic work, or will a ‘giant killer’ emerge? One has to wait for a few more hours for the outcome.
Keen contest
The Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha seat is also considered a prestigious one. Here, the contest is between Daggubati Purandeswari (BJP), M.V.V. Satyanarayana (YSRCP), M. Sri Bharat (TDP), and former CBI Joint Director V.V. Lakshminarayana (JSP).
BJP’s K. Haribabu won the seat in 2014, riding on the ‘Modi wave’.
But will it work for Ms. Purandeswari this time? She had earlier won the seat in 2009 on the Congress ticket.
The outcome is being eagerly awaited. In the constituency, which is predominantly urban, past record shows huge cross-voting.
The total electorate here was 35.78 lakh and the polling percentage was around 71.5%.