Polling in India’s southern state of Telangana concluded on Thursday as 32.6 million people voted to determine the fate of 2,290 candidates contesting on 119 assembly seats.
As per the Election Commission of India (ECI), 63.9 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the state.
The polling in the southern state began at 7 a.m. (IST). The poll body said that polling would end for 106 assembly seats at 5 p.m., and conclude at 4 p.m. for 13 critical seats.
The electoral battle in the state is a three-way race between incumbent Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) led by state chief K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), Congress, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
BRS is eyeing a third consecutive term, while Congress and the BJP are looking to form the government in the state for the first time.
BRS has fielded candidates on all 119 seats, while the BJP and Jana Sena, led by actor Pawan Kalyan, are contesting on 111 and seats, as a per seat sharing arrangement between them.
Congress has fielded contestants on 118 seats and left one seat for its ally, the Communist Party of India (CPI).
Almost all the top politicians of the BJP, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, and several federal ministers held poll campaigns in the state, while for Congress, the poll campaign was led by Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, and several other senior politicians.
Apart from minor clashes among workers of several political parties at the state's Janagama polling station, the voting was peaceful.
All the political parties have claimed victory in the state. While talking to the media, Congress lawmaker KC Venugopal said: “People of Telangana are also saying that Congress will sweep the elections”.
He further said that Congress will win not only Telangana, but all five states.
Earlier in the day, Congress politician G Niranjan lodged a complaint with the poll body against BRS politician and KCR's daughter K. Kavitha, accusing her of violating the model code of conduct.
“Kavita has violated the Election Code by appealing to the people to vote for BRS. While speaking to the media today after exercising her vote at the polling station at DAV School in the Banjara Hills, Kavita appealed to vote for BRS, which is in violation of the Code”, Niranjan said in his complaint.
Meanwhile, BRS also lodged a complaint with the election commission against Congress, alleging that the party had used “deepfake” technology to create fabricated content targeting its president and state chief KCR and other prominent politicians along with candidates contesting the state assembly polls.
The results of the assembly elections of the five states will be announced on 3 December.