Dubbak voting (in Siddipet district) started at 7 a.m. and is expected to end at 6 p.m. (File)
Hyderabad:
Voting for the Dubbak assembly began on Tuesday, with voters lining up in front of the stands to exercise their right to vote.
Voting in Dubbak (in Siddipet district), about 100 km from Hyderabad, started at 7 a.m. and is expected to end at 6 p.m. at 315 polling stations.
The district administration has made arrangements in accordance with COVID-19 protocols, in addition to strict security measures, officials said.
Nearly 2,000 members of the central forces and the Telangana police force were deployed as part of the security arrangements for the polls to run smoothly, a senior police official told PTI.
Sufficient arrangements have been made and various teams including flying squads, surveillance and patrols have been formed to ensure peaceful by-elections, the official said, adding that a total of 1,317 people were already linked.
While 20 more are also in the fray, the main competition is among candidates from TRS, BJP and Congress.
The bypass is made necessary by the death of TRS MP Solipeta Ramalinga Reddy due to health issues in August of this year. The ruling TRS presented its widow Solipeta Sujatha as a candidate.
Congress lined up Cheruku Srinivas Reddy, who defected from the TRS party, just before the bypass.
Congress is counting on the goodwill of Srinivas Reddy’s late father, Mutyam Reddy, a former minister.
The BJP, meanwhile, gave his ticket to Mr. Raghunandan Rao, who had lost to Dubbak in the previous assembly elections.
The party hopes to profit from the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The total number of voters in the Dubbak Assembly constituency is 1,98,756, of which 1,00,778 are women and 97,978 are men.
The campaign witnessed a war of words between the ruling TRS and the opposition BJP over allegations of seizures of money from the Saffron Party candidate.
The counting of the votes will take place on November 10.
