TS witnesses 73.2% polling, says CEO

■ In the city’s 15 constituencies, the voting figure was revised downwards to 48.9 per cent. This is nearly 5 percentage points lower than the 52.99 per cent in 2014. ■ Both the TRS and the People’s Front claimed that the increased polling statewide gave

Election officials confirmed this newspaper’s report that the polling percentage in Friday’s Assembly election stood at

73 per cent.

Nearly 30 hours after the end of polling, TS Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar put the voting percentage at 73.20 per cent. This is about 4 percentage points more than the 2014 Assembly elections when the figure stood at 69.5 per cent. In the city’s 15 constituencies, the voting figure was revised downwards to 48.9 per cent. This is nearly 5 percentage points lower than the

52.99 per cent in 2014. Both the TRS and the People’s Front claimed that the increased polling statewide gave them an advantage. Caretaker minister K.T. Rama Rao said people turned up to vote for the TRS because of the several welfare schemes introduced by the government. TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy said the percentage showed that the people were against the TRS.

Mr Kumar said Khammam district kept its record in logging in the highest poll percentage. In 2014, the Palair constituency topped the charts with

90.30 per cent polling. Madhira took the honours this time with 91.65 per cent.

Yakutpura Assembly constituency recorded the lowest poll percentage of

41.24 per cent in Friday’s election. The dubious honour belonged to the Malakpet constituency in

2014, which recorded 47.70 per cent. Mr Kumar said that about 65 Assembly constituencies recorded between 80 and 90 per cent polling, as against 25 in the last elections.

Apart fro Madhira, two other constituencies recorded more than 90 per cent voting: Palair (90.99) and Narasampet (90.06), against only one in 2014.