Hyderabad: Polling in Telangana to elect 119 members to the Legislative Assembly began at 7 am in various booths across the state. Telangana is witnessing a triangular contest between the BJP, Congress and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). BRS has fielded candidates in all 119 seats.
As many as 2,290 candidates from 109 national and regional parties including 221 women and one transgender are in the fray. Their fate will be decided by a total of 3.17 crore voters.
A total of 103 legislators are re-contesting this time, most of them from the ruling Bharat Rasthra Samithi (BRS).
Voters would exercise their franchise at 35,655 polling stations set up across the state.
For the first time in Telangana, a home voting facility is being provided to persons with disabilities and voters above 80 years of age.
Home voting for citizens aged over 80 years and persons with disabilities has also been made available, with about 27,600 voters enlisted to avail of the service on Thursday. About 1,000 other voters have also registered for the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System.
Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao is contesting from two seats -- his original seat Gajwel and Kamareddy. While he is facing BJP leader Etela Rajender in Gajewal, Congress state unit chief Revanth Reddy is taking him on in Kamareddy.
