Rangareddy: Polling begins fast in Rajendra Nagar but fell harder at the end

Rangareddy : After taking a good start in the morning with 15 percent polling by 9 am, the Rajendra Nagar constituency ended up last in the list of all the eight assembly constituencies of Rangareddy district as it saw a significant decline in footfall during the following rounds at polling booths on Thursday.

The voter turn-out in Rajendra Nagar reached to a whopping 15 percent in just two hours by 9.00 am while the remaining seven constituencies like Ibrahimpatnam, Lal Bahadur Nagar, Maheshwaram, Serilingampally, Chevella, Kalwakurthy and Shadnagar barely reached the point between 5-8.11 percent during the first round.

However, the following round put Serilingampally and Ibrahimpatnam in the leading position with 21.05 and 20.98 percent polling respectively by 11.00 am. The other assembly segments such as Chevella, Kalwakurthy and Shadnagar too made a slightest lead with 18 percent polling each to cock a snook at Rajendranagar which, by the time, managed to reach a point of 17.23 percent.

It further continues with Ibrahimpatnam constituency made a fast stride with 39.13 percent polling by 1.00 pm followed by Kalwakurthy (39.5 percent), Maheshwaram (33.16 percent), Shadnagar (31.3 percent), Chevella (29.5 percent), Serilingampally (28.3 percent), Lal Bahadur Nagar (24.05 percent) and Rajendra Nagar (23.5 percent).

However, the polling pattern slightly changed by 3.00 pm wherein Kalwakurthy constituency takes a significant lead over others with 60.01 percent voting followed by Shadnagar (57.89 percent), Ibrahimpatnam (55.07 percent), Chevella (44.75 percent), Maheshwaram (39.47 percent), Serilingampally (38.35 percent), Lal Bahadur Nagar (36.63 percent) and lastly Rajendra Nagar (34.50 percent).

Later, the curtain went down with 59.96 percent polling by 5.00 pm in Rajendra Nagar followed by Lal Bahadur Nagar with 43.59 percent polling.

Shadnagar segment that starts with a slow pace of polling in the beginning has finally made to the top with 73.54 percent polling followed by Kalwakurthy (64.05 percent), Chevella (63.90 percent), Ibrahimpatnam (63.70 percent), Maheshwaram (53.14 percent) and Serilingampally (48.60 percent).

There are a total number of 5,82,114 voters enrolled in the Rajendra Nagar constituency of which 3,02,995 are male voters while 2,78,898 are female electors. The election commission sets up a total 535 polling stations in the constituency to facilitate voters franchise their right to vote. People are attributing the low percentage of polling in Rajendra Nagar to multiple discrepancies allegedly found in voter information slips (VISs). Some voters purportedly living in Ottapally area near Hassan Nagar on the city outskirts got the slips having mentioned the polling booth located nine kilometers away at Ootpally village in Shamshabad mandal.

“I got the slip having mentioned the polling booth at MPPS Building in Ootpally village in Shamshabad mandal while I live in Indra Nagar area in Hassan Nagar almost nine kilometers away from the location mentioned in the voter slip. For sure, I can’t travel that long to cast my vote,” said Sirajuddin.

Apart from this, the inclement weather with falling temperature and soaring seasonal maladies too is said to have played a role in fending off a significant number of voters from franchising their right to vote.