After an electrifying campaign, stage set for polling in Telangana on Thursday

Hyderabad: After a high-decibel campaign that saw the likes of top national leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi and ruling BRS supremo K Chandrasekar Rao addressing a series of meetings crisscrossing the state, the stage is now set for polling on Thursday to elect 119 members to the Telangana Legislative Assembly.

Voters would exercise their franchise in 35,655 polling stations set up across the state. There are 3.26 crore eligible voters in the state.

Polling would be held from 7 AM to 5 PM in 106 constituencies and from 7 AM to 4 PM in 13 Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas, official sources said on Wednesday.

As many as 2,290 contestants are in the fray for the upcoming elections, including Chief Minister KCR, his minister-son K T Rama Rao, state Congress president A Revanth Reddy and BJP Lok Sabha members Bandi Sanjay Kumar and D Arvind.

The model code of conduct came into force in the state after the Election Commission announced the schedule on October 9.

BRS has fielded candidates in all 119 seats. As per the seat sharing agreement, BJP and actor Pawan Kalyan-headed Jana Sena are contesting in 111 and 8 seats respectively, while Congress has given one seat to its ally CPI, and fighting from 118 others.

Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM has put up candidates in nine segments in the city.

The BRS is keen on extending its winning run that started in 2014, while the Congress is putting up a spirited fight to win the polls having tasted defeat in 2018 and four year earlier, when the previous UPA government granted statehood to Telangana.

The BJP is also leaving no stone unturned to come to power for the first time in the southern state.

CM KCR is contesting from two segments-- Gajwel and Kamareddy. He represents Gajwel in the outgoing Legislative Assembly.

Kamareddy and Gajwel are witnessing exciting contests.

Congress has fielded its state president Revanth Reddy to take on the chief minister in Kamareddy, while BJP candidate Venkata Ramana Reddy is no pushover either.

In Gajwel, BJP has deployed its election campaign chairman Eatala Rajender against CM Rao.

Revanth Reddy, a Lok Sabha member, is also contesting from Kodangal which he had represented earlier.

BJP's Rajender is seeking re-election from Huzurabad.

As part of his campaign, PM Modi addressed rallies for three days in a row in the state, including at Kamareddy, Nirmal, Maheswaram, and Karimnagar, besides holding a massive roadshow in the state capital.

He had also attended a 'BJP's BC Atma Gourava Sabha' (backward classes self-respect meeting) and a public meeting organised by the Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS).

Modi had said the Centre would soon form a committee which would adopt all possible ways for empowering Madigas (a SC community) with regard to their demand of categorisation of Scheduled Castes.

Besides Modi, a host of senior BJP leaders--Union Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma, Maharashtra deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, former Karnataka chief minister B S Yediyurappa and Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai participated in the party's campaign in the state.

Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde also campaigned for the BJP.

Besides its election manifesto, BJP highlighted its promise to make a backward caste leader as CM and empowerment of Madigas and arranging free visits to Lord Ram temple at Ayodhya during its campaign.

The saffron party’s campaign stressed on the necessity of electing a "double engine government" and pointed to the "family rule" of KCR and alleged corruption.

For BRS, CM KCR addressed as many as 96 public meetings during the campaign.

BRS working president and KCR's son K T Rama Rao also campaigned extensively for BRS.

The party's campaign centered around the previous Congress regime's failures and ongoing welfare measures for farmers and women and other sections of society. Rao also highlighted his struggle to achieve Telangana statehood.

Congress has come up with an elaborate and meticulous campaign.

The grand old party's campaign was led by its leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Revanth Reddy.

It focused mainly on the alleged corruption of the BRS government while highlighting its six poll guarantees.

Besides BRS, Congress and BJP, BSP supremo Mayawati also took part in electioneering in the state.

Much to the embarrassment of the BRS government, the National Dam Safety Authority had given an adverse report on the sinking of a barrage which is part of Kaleshwaram irrigation project, which had provided ammunition to the opposition.

More than 2.5 lakh staff will be engaged in poll duties for the assembly elections, Chief Electoral officer Vikas Raj has said.

The counting of votes will be taken up on December 3.

For the first time in Telangana, home voting facility was provided to the persons with disabilities and voters above 80 years.

As on November 28, law enforcement agencies have seized cash, gold, liquor, freebies among others all worth about Rs 737 crore in the state ever since the model code of conduct came into force in the state on October 9, an official release said.

The EC has ordered all private establishments including IT firms to declare holiday on November 30 to enable employees to exercise their franchise.