Polling for the byelection to the Munugode Assembly Constituency ended peacefully with close to 90% of the voters exercising their franchise in the election till 6 p.m.
Brisk polling was reported from several mandals from the commencement of voting at 7 a.m., while voters in several villages reportedly refused to come to the polling stations as the major contending parties had not delivered the freebies assured to them. But, voting picked up by afternoon, crossing 59% by 3 p.m. and there were queues of voters, particularly youngsters, lined up at the polling booths towards the evening.
The election authority, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, distributed slips to eligible voters who were standing in queues at polling stations towards the end of the closing hours enabling them to cast their vote.
The segment reported close to 90% polling in the previous elections in 2018 and the percentage is likely to go up further given the intensity with which the three major contenders mobilised their activists and cadres to secure victory in the bypoll, taken as prestige issue by the major political parties _ the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress, whose candidate K. Rajgopal Reddy, who represented the constituency before resigning from the post and switching loyalty to the BJP.
