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Volunteers being stationed at each polling booth are assisting senior citizens and differently-abled voters to cast their vote in Telangana, where polling for the 119-member assembly is currently underway.
At a polling booth in Kamareddy, a senior citizen was assisted to cast her vote, while visuals from a polling booth in Jubilee Hills show a wheelchaired voter helped on his way to exercise their franchise. Similarly, specially-abled voters arrived at a polling booth in Siddipet to exercise their franchise, as seen in visuals. Chief Electoral Officer for the state, Vikas Raj, said on Wednesday that at each polling station, volunteers will be stationed to help out disabled and wheelchair-bound voters. In addition, there will also be braille posters and ballots for the visually impaired to help them cast their votes. Similarly, we have also put up posters in sign language for the hearing-impaired. We have made all requisite arrangements for our polling staff, the CEO added. Voting began at 7 am and will conclude at 6 pm. A total of 3.17 crore candidates are polling to decide the fate of as many as 2290 candidates. 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,asper the official. In the 2014 assembly polls in united Andhra Pradesh, the then-incumbent Congress got 25.20 per cent votes and BRS (then TRS) got 34 per cent in the Telangana area. In 2018, BRS (then Telangana Rashtra Samithi) won 88 of the 119 seats and had 47.4 per cent of the vote share. The Congress came a distant second with just 19 seats. (ANI)
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