The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : 53 p.c turnout in Makthal bypoll

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Sunday, Dec 11, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Others

53 p.c turnout in Makthal bypoll

Correspondent

MAHABUBNAGAR: The Makthal Assembly byelection held on Saturday passed off peacefully. But the exercise was marked by indifference of voters. The turnout of voters was poor in many of the 121 villages in the constituency.

According to official sources, over 53 per cent voters exercised their franchise.

The queues of voters looked very short. For instance in Appampally village, of the 664 voters only 34 voters exercised their franchise in the first two hours.

At Jajapoor village, only 214 voters utilised their voting right up to 10:30a.m.

Caught napping

At Dalitwada polling booth in Narayanpet, near the spot where C. Narsi Reddy, ho was the sitting MLA, and others were killed by Maoists on August 15, only 295 voters turned up at polling booth No.77 out of a total of 1,320 up to 11a.m.

After 2 p.m. many polling stations in the constituency wore a deserted look. For instance at Kachwar village, when a team of mediapersons went to the polling station it looked deserted and the lone police constable on duty was taking a nap.

Candidate manhandled

Meanwhile there was mild tension in Hindupoor village of Magnoor mandal when candidate of the BC united front Jalajam Stayanarayana raised objection with the polling personnel for ignoring the rule of producing identity card before the polling officer for casting his vote.

He pleaded in vain that they must demand any one identity card specified by the Election Commission.

This led to his manhandling by supporters of Congress candidate C. Ram Mohan Reddy.

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