The elections to 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in Telangana were the lack-lustre affair, as the voters did not evince much in casting their vote, unlike in Andhra, where it was a pitched battle.
There were no incidents of violence in any part of the state, except complaints of EVM malfunctioning and missing of names in the voters’ list. The voting percentage was only 60.57 per cent till 5 pm and it might go up by another three or four per cent.
This percentage is very less, compared to assembly elections, where 73.5 per cent of voters exercised their franchise. In 2014, the voting percentage in Telangana was 75 per cent.
In rural areas, there was a brisk polling with Medak recording highest poll percentage of 68.60. But, in urban areas, voters did not evince much interest in casting their votes as usual.
Particularly in Hyderabad and Secunderabad, the percentage of voting was extremely low -- 39.60 and 39.20 respectively. Employees of the IT sector covering the Madapur, Gachibowli areas stayed away from polling as usual.
In Nizamabad, the polling was very slow and low, as there were 185 candidates in fray. The EC authorities had to arrange 12 EVMs in “L” shape to accommodate such a big number of candidates in each polling booth.
There were complaints of missing of votes of several registered voters in Telangana, particularly in Hyderabad. Shobhana Kamineni, the Vice Chairperson of Apollo Hospitals, also found her name deleted from the voter list at the Masab Tank polling booth.
Shobhana is the sister-in-law of sitting MP from Chevella Konda Vishweshwar Reddy who is now contesting on a Congress ticket.
She said that the deletion of her name from the voter list was a crime against her as a citizen.
"This is the worst day for me as an Indian citizen. I came to the booth and I was told my vote is deleted. Am I not an Indian citizen? Am I not counted in this country? Is not my vote important?" Kamineni said, in a video message uploaded on social media.