As many as 1,90,351 voters will decide the fate of a total of 13 candidates in the fray for the by-election to the Palair Assembly constituency to be held on Monday.
The bypoll has become prestigious following the keen contest between the TDP- and YSR Congress-backed Congress candidate R Sucharita Reddy, TRS candidate – Minister for Roads and Buildings T Nageswara Rao and the CPI-backed CPI (M) candidate P Sudarshan Rao.
While the Congress was pinning its hopes on “sympathy wave” to retain the seat, the TRS was banking on “development plank” to wrest the seat from the Congress. The CPI (M) was relying on its previous track record in spearheading various mass movements to win the seat.
ADVERTISEMENT
The election authorities made elaborate arrangements to ensure peaceful conduct of the by-election slated to be held in as many as 243 polling stations.
For the first time in the Assembly elections in the State, Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail devices would be used in all the polling stations. As many as 74 polling stations were identified as sensitive and 68 as hyper sensitive in the constituency. Around 2698 polling personnel were drafted for the by-election duty.