Hyderabad, Nov 11 (NationPress) Approximately 9.2 percent of the electorate participated in the first two hours of the byelection for the Jubilee Hills Assembly seat in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

Voting commenced at 7 a.m. across all 407 polling stations in the area. According to the Election Commission, 9.2 percent of the votes were submitted by 9 a.m.

Moderate participation was noted during the early hours in the constituency, which includes affluent Jubilee Hills along with various middle-income and underprivileged neighborhoods within the city.

Over 400,000 voters are eligible to participate in this byelection, necessitated by the passing of the incumbent MLA, Maganti Gopinath of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

A total of 58 candidates are contesting, with the primary competition between the ruling Congress party, the opposition BRS, and the BJP.

The BRS has nominated Gopinath’s spouse, Sunitha, while Naveen Yadav is contesting on a Congress ticket. The BJP has once again chosen Lankala Deepak Reddy.

Sunitha was one of the first to vote at the Yellareddyguda Srinagar colony, encouraging all voters to take part.

Candidates from both Congress and BJP also cast their votes, urging citizens to participate in the electoral process.

District Election Officer R.V. Karnan inspected a polling center at Borabanda to assess the voting process.

He noted that there were some technical difficulties with the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) at 11 locations, which were promptly addressed.

Chief Electoral Officer C. Sudharshan Reddy announced that the voting would continue until 6 p.m., with individuals in line at that time permitted to cast their votes.

The Election Commission made extensive preparations to ensure that the polling was smooth, free, and fair.

This election marks the first deployment of drones for monitoring all polling stations. A total of 139 drones have been utilized for centralized aerial surveillance and real-time situation assessment, according to the CEO.

These drones will provide a comprehensive view of the voting process at the 407 polling stations across 139 locations, assisting election officials in quickly identifying any disturbances.

A control room has been established at the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) head office for overseeing drone operations.

Hyderabad District Election Officer R.V. Karnan mentioned that live webcasting has been implemented from all polling stations to ensure peaceful voting and maintain order.

Out of the 407 polling stations, 226 have been classified as critical locations where paramilitary forces are stationed.

A total of 2,060 election personnel are on duty, including 515 polling officers and an equal number of assistant officers.

Given the large number of candidates, each polling station has been equipped with EVMs that contain one Control Unit (CU), four Ballot Units (BUs), and one VVPAT. A total of 561 CUs, 2,394 BUs, and 595 VVPATs were deployed.

Mobile counters have been established at all polling stations to allow voters to securely store their mobile devices before voting.

According to Hyderabad's Joint Commissioner of Police, Tafseer Iqbal, 1,761 police personnel have been assigned to maintain order.

Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) members have been allocated to 68 polling station sites.

The constituency has a total of 401,365 voters, consisting of 208,561 males, 192,779 females, and 25 others.

As per the DEO, there are 6,859 voters aged 18-19 years and 2,134 voters aged over 85 years. Furthermore, 103 absentee voters (over 85 years and persons with disabilities) opted for postal ballots, with 101 utilizing this option.