[1]Sunday’s bypolls in the seven Assembly segments saw a massive voter turnout. Till the last reports came in, voting percentage had crossed 72 and Kovur, which gained importance following YSR Congress candidate N. Prasanna Kumar Reddy seeking re-election, saw 84 per cent of voters exercising their franchise.
With no incident of violence or poll malpractices reported from any of the polling stations, Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwarlal announced that there would be no repolls and counting of votes would be taken up on March 21.
He said that Adilabad had registered a voter turnout of 62 per cent, Kamareddy 68, Mahabubnagar 70, Nagarkurnool 70, Kollapur 75, Station Ghanpur 76.17 and Kovur 84 per cent. Director general of police V. Dinesh Reddy said that the polls were peaceful in all the segments. Except for a minor incident involving the Telangana Rashtra Samiti candidate from Kamareddy, Mr G. Goverdhan, arguing with a police official, voting was smooth.
Voters strike it rich in Kovur bypolls
The stakes may have been high for the main political parties contesting byelection for Kovur seat, but for the voters, the election brought unforeseen monetary gains overnight. Parties vied with each other to distribute cash to the voters and it was delivered to almost every doorstep, except at those who did not accept. Such people were very few.
A school teacher, M. Sridhar of Kagulapadu village told this newspaper that each voter received about Rs 1,750 from the aspiring candidates of all the three main political parties. While one party offered Rs 1,000 per vote, the other parties gave Rs 500 and Rs 200 respectively, he informed. As a last minute effort to improve his position one of the contesting candidates, who gave Rs 500 earlier, gave another Rs 500 late on Saturday night to the voters at Buchireddypalem, acc-ording to a reliable source.
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