Telangana: Chandrababu’s vote that wasn’t, well, almost

Telugu Desam supremo N Chandrababu Naidu’s ‘invalid vote’; a commoner telling Union Minister K Chiranjeevi not to jump the queue at Jubilee Hills Club polling station; wads of currency worth Rs 2.50 crore stored in a former minister’s car engine going up in the flames; and movie artiste Brahmanandam, who campaigned about the importance of voting on behalf of the Election Commission of India, and his wife finding their names missing in the electoral rolls were some of the highlights of the polling today in Telangana. The region recorded nearly 70 per cent polling. Telangana, for one last time, voted as a region and, for the first time, has chosen its first state government through peaceful polling. The much-hyped new voters and IT crowds in Hyderabad shied away from voting. Instead, by opting for leave on Friday, a large number of them apparently took an extended long weekend. While the polling was recorded at just 53 per cent in Hyderabad as calculated at 7.45 pm in spite of a surprisingly cool weather, the CEO expects it to touch 60 per cent. This is way below the rest of Telangana districts, where he expects the poll percentage to get consolidated at little over 75 per cent. [caption id=“attachment_1503625” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Chandrababu Naidu. Agencies.[/caption] Chandrababu Naidu’s casual disclosure to the media that he cast his vote for the NDA contestants, in this case the BJP candidates, for the Lok Sabha and assembly has snowballed into a controversy. Naidu, along with his wife Bhuvaneshwari, son Lokesh and daughter-in-law Brahmani cast his vote in Jubilee Hills. His residence falls in Khairatabad assembly segment of Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency. Both seats were given to the BJP as part of the seat-sharing arrangement. As soon as he emerged out of the polling station, the family posed for photographs at the request of journalists. In a tete-a-tete with the scribes, Naidu responded to a query as to who did he vote for as his party contestants were not there in the fray. He disclosed that he exercised his franchise in favour of the BJP, attracting a sharp reaction from the Chief Electoral Officer of the state Bhanwarlal. The CEO said that the disclosure was in contravention to the Constitutional provisions. Therefore, his vote would be declared invalid. When some TDP leaders confronted him in the evening urging him to withdraw his remarks against Naidu’s vote, Bhanwarlal stood his ground and asserted that he would go by the rule book and in case the TDP leaders had any objection, they could approach the Election Commission of India. However, the Chief Election Commissioner clarified that it was not violation of rules and Naidu’s vote would be taken into account and that it was not invalid. Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which tested the waters alone for the first time without having any electoral tie-up, is hopeful of winning75 assembly and 12 Lok Sabha seats, according to T Harish Rao, senior party leader and KCR’s nephew. Thus, apparently the TRS has desisted from making tall claims over a resounding victory or an overwhelming majority. Though Telangana PCC president Ponnala Laxmaiah claimed that the people of Telangana rallied behind the Congress party, he has not specified any number to the winning chances of his party. Governor ESL Narasmihan and his wife Vimala were one of those early birds to cast their votes. Most star campaigners of different political parties, like Chiranjeevi, Balakrishna, Pawan Kalyan, exercised their votes in Hyderabad. Chiranjeevi had to sheepishly do a lot of explaining saying that he had to get into the polling station only to find out if his vote was there in that particular polling station, when he was hooted and heckled by a commoner from jumping the queue. As it was a celebrity polling station, most TV channels grabbed the embarrassment courted by the actor-turned-politician. News about the EC ordering registration of cases against Narendra Modi for violating the election laws spread thick and fast, especially when the polling picked up pace in the second half of the day. Elsewhere in Seemaandhra, Narendra Modi addressed his maiden rally sharing the dais with Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan. The actor launched a vituperative against YS Jagan Reddy and heaped encomiums on Naidu and Modi.