Hyderabad, Dec 1 (UNI) Polling for the much-hyped Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) to elect Corporators for 150 wards, and involving an electorate of more than 74.67 lakh began on Tuesday, amid tight security arrangements.
The polling which began at 0700 hours will end at 1800 hours.
The State Election Commission (SEC) has made elaborate arrangements by setting up over 9,101 polling stations and manned by 36,404 polling personnel including 9,101 polling officers and 150 returning officers.
The SEC had deployed surveillance teams to ensure smooth polling.
Of the 9,101 polling stations, the SEC had identified 1439 polling stations as sensitive, 1004 as hyper Sensitive and 257 critical.
The voting being held by observing the COVID-19 safety norms.
Voters without masks and photo identity cards were not being allowed into the polling stations and sanitisers were provided at entry and exit points of polling stations.
More than 50,000 security personnel were deployed to ensure smooth and incident-free polling.
In all,1,122 candidates including 150 nominees of the ruling TRS,149 of BJP,146 belonging to the Congress, 106 (TDP),51 (AIMIM) 17 (CPI),12 CPI (M), others recognized & regional parties (76) and 415 (Independents) are in the fray.
The SEC said as some political parties had raised objections on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), the polling being held with paper ballot which will be in white colour.
Repolling, if necessary will be held on December 3.
The result will be announced on December 4.
In the 2016 GHMC election, the Ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) had won 99 seats followed by Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) 44 out of the total 150 wards.
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