All eyes on municipal polls results today

Rangareddy

As the voters of six municipalities in Ranga Reddy district sealed the fate of the contestants in ballot boxes on the polling day two days back, all eyes are on the result day, Friday, when the boxes are set to be opened for counting of votes before announcing the winners.

Counting of ballots polled by the voters from six urban local bodies (ULBs)--Amangal, Chevella, Ibrahimpatnam, Moinabad, Shadnagar and Shankerally—will begin from 8 am. A total of 437 candidates are in the foray from 126 wards spread in ULBs where polling for the second ordinary elections was held on Wednesday. All the municipalities witnessed 78.99% turn-out.

Of the 1,76,023 voters enrolled, 1,39,044 exercised their franchise at different polling stations where the voting went on till 7 pm. Amangal municipality tops the list with 84.08% turnout followed by Chevella (81.44%), Moinabad (80.24%), Ibrahimpatnam (78.45%), Shankarpally (77.09%) and Shadnagar (76.24%).

All parties, especially the candidates and their supporting teams, have their fingers crossed as authorities shifted the boxes to the counting centres where preparations are being finalised for the counting.

The whole election mechanism in the district is geared up for the judgement day as deployment of the staff at designated counting centres in all municipalities was finalised. Officials and staff drafted for duty rolled up their sleeves for the task.

According to officials, of the 64 supervisors, 27 reserve supervisors, 128 assistants and 46 reserve assistants were allotted to carry out the counting smoothly. Besides, 47 returning officers were allotted for the day.

The counting centres include Brilliant Grammer School, Amangal, Farah Engineering College, Chevella, Sri Indu Engineering College, Ibrahimpatnam, MAK College of Pharmacy, Moinabad, Mini Stadium on National Highway-VII on Shadnagar road and Municipal Auditorium Building, Shankarpally. The centres will have 63 counting tables in seven halls.