Kothagudem: Villagers from Maoist affected Bhadradri, Kothagudem district actively participated in the Assembly elections on Friday. The Maoists members had asked for a boycott of polls in Telangana. However, the voters were seen participating on the day of the polls from 7am in the areas Tegada, Kurnapalli, Dummugudem, Wazedu, Venkatapuram and Lenin Colony in Charla Mandal in the Bhadrachalam constituency and in the areas Gundala and Allapalli in Pinapaka constituency. These areas Maoist affected.

The Adivasis voters were also seen in queues and a remarkable number of voters had finished the voting process by 10am in these areas.  

In Kothagudem district the polling had a slow start. By 9am the voter percentage was 9.7% and by 11am it reached 21%. By 3pm the average of voters was 61.4%.

Rajat Kumar Saini, the Kothagudem district collector and Sunil Dutt, the Police Superintendent monitored the elections in the constituency through webcasting at the collectorate. The polling process was managed by five returning officers, 85 sectorial officers and 4,404 poll personnel. The heavy security at Kothagudem was maintained considering the CPI (Maoist) party’s decision to boycott the polls.

6 polling stations were relocated at the Kothagudem district including Lenin Colony, Danavaipeta, Gowraram, Singavaram (PS no.104), Singavaram (PS no. 105), and Singavaram Gram Panchayat fearing the Maoist threat. These places also saw good participation on poll day. 

The constituencies saw voter turnouts of 65% at Pinapaka, 54.47% at Yellandu, 61.02% at Kothagudem, 61% at Aswaraopeta and 66% at Bhadrachalam. 

Prior to this Maoist member Sodi Admaiah, resident of Chennapura was arrested in Charla police station limits. The police recovered two directional mines (pipe bombs) from him. Reportedly, four other Maoists have fled to Chhattisgarh.