Assembly Elections: Polling underway in Telangana, Rajasthan

TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/After a high-voltage campaign that saw war of words among contending parties, polling began in Rajasthan and Telangana on Friday. In Telangana, voting began at 7 am and will conclude at 5 pm, except in 13 constituencies classified as Left Wing Extremist-affected, where the process ends at 4 pm itself.

Over 2,000 candidates are in the fray for 199 assembly seats in Rajasthan, where polling on Friday will determine whether the Bharatiya Janata Party bucks anti-incumbency and an increasingly aggressive opposition to return to power. Votes will be cast at 51,687 polling booths, 259 of them managed exclusively by women officials and security personnel.

In Telangana, the Congress-led alliance is challenging the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti, and the Bharatiya Janata Party seeking to make it a triangular contest for 119 assembly seats. The results will be out on December 11, along with those from the other four states which saw Assembly elections in the past few weeks. The outcome of the elections in Rajasthan, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram is expected to set the tone for the Lok Sabha contest next year.