Andhra Pradesh records huge turnout in peaceful voting

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh recorded 65 per cent voter turnout in the first phase of elections for 22 Lok Sabha and 154 assembly constituencies. The voting passed off peacefully.

Even after the 4 pm deadline, a large number of people were waiting for their turn in long queues to cast their votes. Those who joined the queue before 4 pm were allowed to vote.

The Additional Director General of Police, Abdul Khayyum Khan, said that except for a stray incident of violence in Mahubnagar, the polling passed off smoothly and peacefully.

"It is one of the most peaceful and smooth elections in the history of the state", he said.

Not a single incident of Maoist violence was reported from the sensitive districts bordering Chattisgarh and Orissa.

In the only incident of violence, angry residents of Aija village in Mahbubnagar district attacked and ransacked the polling station. The trouble started when a local resident, who was distributing pamphlets appealing for the poll boycott, was arrested by the police near a polling station. The villagers then attacked the polling station.

Earlier, the villagers had decided to boycott the elections in protest against inclusion of their area in Alamapur assembly constituency, instead of Gadwal which was nearer to them. They were protesting on the issue since the delimitation process changed the geography of the constituency.

The Chief Electoral Officer I.V. Subba Rao announced that repolling will be held in Aija and 16 other places in Mahbubnagar district where polling was disrupted due to various factors, including non-functioning of voting machines.

While at many places including Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Chevella and Mahbubnagar, the polling was brisk, with 20 per cent of the votes being polled in the first two hour. Polling started up to one hour behind the scheduled time of 7 am in many places due to technical problems.

The voters were also angry in places in Hyderabad and Secunderabad over the confusion about the location of their polling stations. "I am going around since last one hour under the hot sun to find my polling booth", said J.V.Chowdhary, a retired government officer.

In Masab Tank area, the polling stations for men and women were almost a kilometre away from each other, much to the annoyance of many couples.

Adding to the woes of the voters, political parties also failed to distribute the slips indicating the booth number and serial number of voters.

In an interesting sidelight to the proceedings of the day, Telugu Desam president and former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu flew in from coastal Andhra region in a helicopter only to cast his vote in Jubilee Hills area before returning to continue his campaign for the second phase.

Similarly the film star turned politician Chiranjeevi, president of Praja Rajyam arrived in the city from coastal belt to vote. He was accompanied by his wife, and film star son Ramacharan Teja to cast the vote.

Jubilee Hills area, where most of the film stars reside was glittering as many of the popular actors came out to vote. Film star Nagarjuna, wife Amala Akkineni and son Naga Chaitanya, and another star Balakrishna also voted in the same area. Junior NTR voted in Mehdipatanam area. The film producer D Ramanaidu, his son Venkatesh and many other film personalities voted in Film Nagar Cultural Center and Vijayshanti voted in Euro Colony in Hyderabad.

While coming out after voting many stars appealed to the voters to go out and exercise their franchise to bring the government of their choice.

As far as trends seen during the polling today, the voters were cleverly talking of a different party after every few miles. If it was MIM in the old city of Hyderabad, many were talking of voting for the BJP in Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency. In Rajindernagar assembly constituency many voters said they voted for the Praja Rajaym. In Chevella the voters looked divided between S Jaipal Reddy and Jitender Reddy of the TDP.