Polling held peacefully

The Krishna-Guntur Graduate Constituency MLC election was conducted smoothly on Thursday, with no untoward incidents reported in either NTR or Krishna districts. NTR District Collector Dr G Lakshmisha and Krishna District Collector DK Balaji personally monitored polling across their respective jurisdictions.
The voter turnout stood at 65.69% in NTR district and 68.02% in Krishna district. After polling concluded, ballot boxes were transported to the reception centre at the Vijayawada Sub-Collector’s Office. The counting of votes is scheduled for March 3 at AC College in Guntur.
Vijayawada MP Kesineni Sivanath (Chinni) and his wife cast their votes at KBC ZPH School in Patamata, Vijayawada. Several public representatives and officials also exercised their franchise at polling stations across the city.
To enhance voter accessibility, the Election Commission of India (ECI) set up additional polling stations compared to previous elections. While polling began at a slow pace, the trend continued until the end of the voting period. NTR District Police Commissioner SV Rajasekhar Babu oversaw security arrangements, ensuring a peaceful voting process.
In NTR district, 51,279 graduates voted out of 78,063 registered voters across 112 polling stations. Collector Dr Lakshmisha visited polling centres at Koneru Basavaiah Chowdary Zilla Parish High School in Patamata and Gentela Venkata Jogaiah ZP High School in Jaggayyapeta, apart from monitoring polling trends in Nandigama and G Konduru. The turnout, which was 49% by 2 PM, surged to 65.69% in the final two hours. Leaders of the TDP-led NDA alliance facilitated voter transportation to polling stations.
In Krishna district, 42,927 out of 63,114 eligible graduate voters participated in the election across 77 polling stations, recording a 68.02% turnout. Of these, 24,240 were male voters, while 18,687 were female voters. The polling percentage, which stood at 12.45% by 10 AM, increased to 30.59% by noon and reached 49.52% by 2 PM. Krishna District Collector DK Balaji cast his vote at Hyni High School in Machilipatnam.