Polling began on a brisk note in Andhra Pradesh on Monday for simultaneous elections to the 175-member state Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats.
Long queues were seen at some polling centres even before the process began at 7 a.m.
More than 4.14 crore voters are eligible to cast their votes at 46,389 centres. They will decide the political fortunes of 2,841 candidates.
Chief Minister and YSR Congress Party president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, former chief minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu, Jana Sena leader and actor Pawan Kalyan are among 2,387 candidates for the 175 Assembly seats.
For 25 Lok Sabha, 454 contestants are in the fray. The prominent among them are former Union Minister and state BJP chief D. Purandeswari, state Congress president Y.S. Sharmila Reddy and former Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy.
About 5.26 lakh personnel including 1.14 lakh policemen have been deployed as part of the elaborate arrangements to ensure peaceful and smooth conduct of the polling process.
Polling in 169 Assembly segments will be held from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. In the Left-Wing Extremist (LWE) affected segments of Araku, Paderu and Rampachodavaram, the polling will conclude at 4 p.m. while in three other LWE-affected segments of Palakonda, Kurupam and Salur it will conclude at 5 p.m.
In the 2019 elections, the state had recorded 79.84 per cent polling. Officials expect the polling likely to go up to 83 per cent this time.
Out of 46,389 polling centres, 12,438 have been declared as sensitive.
The poll authorities have made arrangements for webcasting of polling processing in 34,651 polling stations.
A total of 1.6 lakh Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) have been deployed.
As part of the security arrangements, besides the 1.14 lakh police personnel as many as 295 companies of central forces are also deployed.
Among Lok Sabha constituencies, Visakhapatnam has the largest number of candidates (33). There are 31 candidates in Nandyal and 30 in Guntur.
There are only 12 candidates in the Rajahmundry Lok Sabha constituency.
Among Assembly segments, Tirupati has the maximum number of candidates followed by 40 in Mangalagiri. There are only six candidates in Chodavaram.
The state is witnessing a direct fight between the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and the NDA, which comprises TDP, Jana Sena and BJP.
In 2019, the YSRCP wrested power from TDP by bagging 151 Assembly seats. The TDP won 23 seats while Jana Sena Party (JSP) secured one. The YSRCP had also won 22 Lok Sabha seats with the TDP bagging the remaining three.
