Presidential poll concludes peacefully

All 117 legislators of the 119-member strong Telangana State Assembly exercised their franchise for the Presidential election on Monday, with Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao being the first person to cast the vote.

The entire process of voting, which began on the dot of 10 am, was gone through in a disciplined manner without any hitches. The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) had announced its support for the NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind much ahead of the election.

Two MLAs, MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi who is away in London for treatment, and TRS legislator from Peddapalli, D Manohar Reddy, who is hospitalised in a city hospital, were the only ones who couldn’t exercise their franchise.

The TRS legislators, under instructions



from the Chief Minister, arrived in special buses from the party office to the Assembly to cast their votes. The pink party legislators showed enthusiasm in casting their vote. The Chief Minister had taken all measures to ensure 100 per cent participation of party legislators and conducted mock polling to avoid invalid votes from the TRS. The TRS legislators completed the process of voting within an hour of the start of polling.

The party on Sunday conducted a meeting of its MLAs to familiarise them with the voting procedure. The value each MLA's vote in Telangana is 132. The authorities made elaborate arrangements for the election. 

The opposition's nominee for the top constitutional post is former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.