Polling for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GMHC) commenced at 7 am on Tuesday and will go on till 6 in the evening.
Over 7.4 million people are exercising their franchise in the fifth largest metropolitan city area of India. As many as 1,122 candidates are in the fray for 150 constituencies.
On Tuesday morning, people were seen lined up at various polling booths to cast their votes. Union minister G Kishan Reddy voted at the Deeksha Modern School in Kachiguda.
Meanwhile, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi cast his vote at the St Faiz High School in Hyderabad, which is among the several polling booths designated this year. Telangana minister and TRS leader KT Rama Rao was also seen exercising his franchise.
Other top officials who voted include, Cyberabad police commissioner V C Sajjannar, Hyderabad police commissioner Anjani Kumar, Megastar Chiranjeevi, Telangana high court chief justice Rajendra Singh Chowhan and many others.
In view of the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) in India, polling booths have been sanitised and areas have been marked inside and outside the booths to ensure social distancing.
It is mandatory for voters to sanitise their hands and wear masks/face coverings before casting their votes along with maintaining social distancing while standing in queues.
The parties which are fighting to emerge victorious in the municipal polls are the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), AIMIM, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Congress Party. But, the direct contest is between the TRS, BJP and the AIMIM.
TRS won in 2015 as it secured 99 seats out of the total 150. The AIMIM which was in alliance with the TRS won 44 seats and the BJP-TDP alliance won 5 seats. The Congress could only manage to win 2 seats.
The star campaigners for 2020 have been Union home minister Amit Shah, Asaduddin Owaisi, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, KT Rama Rao among many others.