India’s youngest state, Telangana, is all set to go to the polls on Friday and the stage is all set. A little over 2.80 crore people are eligible to vote in the election, where a total of 1,821 candidates are in the fray. A high-decibel campaign for the 119 Assembly seats ended on Wednesday evening.
Ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) President and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is hoping to storm back into power for the second time in a row while the Congress-led People's Front, comprising Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) and Communist Party of India (CPI), is determined to disappoint him and take over the reins.
KCR, whose party bagged 63 seats in 2014, dissolved the Assembly on September 6, to go for early elections, that is, eight months before its term was to end. The Congress is contesting in 94 seats while its ally TDP in 13 seats. They have left the remaining seats for TJS and CPI.
The BJP is contesting the polls on its own. The Bahujan Left Front (BLF), led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), is also contesting.
There are over 2.80 crore voters in the state, out of which 1.41 crore voters are male and 1.39 crore voters are female. According to the Election Commission, 7,04,372 voters have enrolled for the first time.
Voting will be held at 32,815 polling stations in 31 districts across Telangana.
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