70% polling in Medak, 65% in Nandigama
Moderate to brisk polling was recorded in Medak lok Sabha constituency in Telangana and Nandigama Assembly constituency in Andhra Pradesh where by election was held on Saturday. Around 70 per cent votes were polled in Medak lok Sabha constituency while it was around 65 per cent in Nandigama.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who had won the lok Sabha seat in the General elections, was among the notable voters to exercise franchise on Saturday. He cast his vote in Chintamadaka village under Siddipet Assembly constituency. His nephew and Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao polled his vote in Siddipet.
The by-election witnessed clashes between rival groups at a couple of places. Police had to use force at Kottapet village under Shivpet mandal to disperse the warring groups of TRS and Congress workers. Villagers of Peddapur under Veldurthy mandal boycotted the polling to protest against the absence of a good road to link the village to outside world.
The protest was sparked off by an incident in yesterday when a five month old baby died as he could not be taken to hospital in time. As the mud road to the village had turned muddy because of the recent rains no vehicle was able to come there to take the ailing child to hospital. The family had to walk for three hours to reach a good road but the child died on the way.
Anger over the incident the villager decided to boycott the polling. Against total 203 votes only 15 votes were polled after which the villagers stopped the polling demanding that a senior district official should come to assur them to solve the problem.