Hyderabad: Tension prevailed near Chigurumamidi polling station in Husnabad constituency during the election to the Medak-Nizamabad-Adilabad-Karimnagar Graduates and Teachers MLC constituency on Thursday, February 27. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers alleged that Congress workers were distributing money to voters in a car to lure them to vote for the ruling party during the Telangana MLC elections.

BJP workers intercepted a car which they claimed was being used to distribute money and showed three number plates, two with Delhi numbers and one with a Telangana number to police. They and demanded that the car be seized immediately.

As voting for the Telangana MLC elections progressed, BJP workers further showed pamphlets and other election paraphernalia belonging to the Congress in the car.

In another incident in Anthargam mandal headquarters of Ramagundam constituency, BJP and BSP workers alleged that the polling agents of Congress took a cell phone inside the polling station with the local Congress MLA on the phone on the other end of the line. They alleged that the Congress MLA threatened the their polling agents to leave the polling station, to which the polling agents reportedly obliged out of fear.

BJP leader K Sandhya Rani said that a complaint was lodged with the returning officer, and the revenue divisional officer (RDO) and the assistant commissioner of police (ACP), and that they visited the polling station. She said that the officials made the complainants fill the polling agent forms again and sent them into the polling station during the Telangana MLC election voting.

“The RDO questioning what was the necessity of having a polling agent inside the polling station is a reflection of their ways of conducting election. What is the need for conducting an election? They could have polled only their (ruling party) votes,” she said.

In another incident during voting for the Telangana MLC elections, an argument broke out between BJP leader Somarapu Arun Kumar and a police officer at a polling station in Godavarikhani, when the latter asked the former to remove the saffron scarf near the polling station that was worn by the BJP leader.

“Now you are asking me to remove the Khanduva. Next you’ll ask me to remove my bottu,” the BJP leader argued, stating that the saffron scarf didn’t symbolize any political party. A clash also erupted between Congress and BJP workers at a polling station in Mancherial during the election. The police stationed there dispersed the agitated crowd.

As many as 90 candidates are in the fray for the upcoming in the state MLC elections. Biennial elections to the Telangana Legislative Council for Medak-Nizamabad-Adilabad-Karimnagar Graduates’ and Medak-Nizamabad-Adilabad-Karimnagar Teachers’ constituencies will be held on February 27.

Out of the total 90 candidates, 56 are for the graduates seat, 15 for the Karimnagar and 19 for the Nalgonda teachers seats, said the Chief Election Officer, Telangana on Wednesday, February 26. Prohibitory orders were also issued to restrict the assembly of 5 or more persons in a 100-metre radius of Zilla Parishad High School (ZPHS), at Ramachandrapuram for the Telangana MLC elections.

For the Telangana MLC elections, 499 polling stations have been set up for the Karimnagar graduates seat, 274 for the Teachers Nalgonda seat, and 200 for the the Teachers Nalgonda polls.