The Telangana Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has identified 3.17 crore voters across the state ahead of the Assembly elections scheduled for Thursday, November 30. Of the total, 1,62,98,418 are male voters, 1,63,01,705 are female voters, and 2,676 transgender persons have registered as voters. A total of 10,969 polling stations have been identified as critical stations out of 35,655 stations. Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure has been enforced and will be in force until the end of polling.
The highest number of critical polling stations have been identified in districts of Wanaparthy, Yadadri Bhuvanagiri, Jayashankar Bhupalpally, Jogulamba Gadwal, Medak, Nalgonda and select parts of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). The Election Commission of India (ECI) has ordered the deployment of Central Armed Paramilitary Forces (CAPF) in all critical polling stations to ensure maximum security.
The EC has booked 1,020 people for violating the Model Code of Conduct, which has been enforced since October 9 of this year. Ninety-seven First Information Reports on cash seizure, five on the seizure of precious metals, 317 on drugs, 86 on freebies and 10,325 on liquor have been registered.
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According to a press note issued by the CEO, a total of 1,053 postal have been identified in the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) system and over 26,000 people have opted to use home voting facilities. A total of 1.68 lakh postal ballots have been issued to voters to cast votes in facilitation centres. The Telangana CEO also identified 37 instances of confirmed paid news and removed 120 social media links after various political parties complained.
About 45,000 state police forces have been deployed for the elections including 3,000 people from other departments and 50 companies with the Telangana State Special Police. Home Guards from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh. Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Chattisgarh have also been deployed. In total, 2.08 lakh officials have been deployed for the elections.