Silent period begins: After campaigning ends, parties begin poll micro management

Hyderabad: High-octane campaign came to an end in the poll-bound Telangana on Tuesday evening. While the BRS is hoping for a hat-trick, the Congress is exuding confidence of “Marpu” (change) in the government and the BJP went all out to make a mark.

About 2,290 contestants are in the fray for 119 Assembly seats. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is contesting from two segments - Gajwel and Kamareddy - as is TPCC chief Revanth Reddy from Kodangal and Kamareddy. The BJP fielded its MLA, Etala Rajender, from Gajwel, besides Huzurabad, where he is the incumbent legislator.

Now that the phase of physical campaign has come to an end, the second phase of parties going in for micro management has begun. According to Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj, Tuesday night was very crucial and high vigil is being maintained to ensure that the political parties do not indulge in either alluring the voters or threatening them.

However, ground reports indicate that the parties were inventing new methods to reach out to the voters and lure them with money and liquor. Since the stakes for the BRS and Congress are high, these two parties are said to be paying Rs 2,000 to Rs 10,000 per vote in some segments.

Reports says that the BRS and Congress candidates from Khammam, Palair, Kodangal, Kollapur, Armoor, Malkagiri, Medchal and LB Nagar are vying with each other to lure the voters with huge money by adopting new techniques to reach out to the voters.

In some assembly segments, contestants are directly contacting the villagers and were said to be assuring them that development projects would be taken up and that their long-pending issues would be addressed soon after winning the polls. Along with that they are said to be roping in community leaders with money and gifts seeking their support.

Sources said that some top leaders were holding talks with village and Mandal level leaders and instructed them to ensure the mobilisation of their party supporters in large numbers to the polling booths on the polling day.

The leaders were also trying to ensure that there was no cross voting or voter impersonation on the day of polling.

In addition, arrangements to carry voters who were staying elsewhere were also being made. There are many voters who stay in Hyderabad or other towns but have votes in their respective villages.