Telangana Assembly Polls Counting Day: All You Need To Know

With a voter turnout of 73.20 per cent, the maiden polls for the 119-seat Telangana Assembly were held on December 7. The fate of 1,821 candidates contesting the election will be decided on Tuesday when the counting of votes will be taken up.

The counting will begin at 8 am.

Necessary arrangements have been made for the counting day and the strongrooms, where EVMs are kept, secured with central paramilitary forces providing "first cordon of security", Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar said and added “One of the strongroom keys is kept with the external observer and as precaution, political parties are also keeping a watch.”

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"EVMs will be brought out polling station-wise and kept at the counting centres which will have 14 tables (except in Medchal which will have 28). And counting will go on. This will be done after the completion of the full postal ballot count. Counting will be done in the respective constituencies," Kumar told PTI.

"The winning candidate will be declared and certificate will be prepared after obtaining clearance from the Election Commission. With the approval of the ECI, the Chief Electoral Officer will submit the list of winning candidates party-wise to the Governor," he added.

Exit polls have indicated a clear edge for K Chandrashekar Rao-led Telangana Rashtra Samithi.

Rao has exuded confidence that his party will win.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi had said the alliance led by his party is confident of winning the election "hands-down" and claimed Rao was showing "signs of nervousness and insecurity" in meetings he addressed as the campaign winded down.

Predicting a fractured poll mandate in Telangana, the BJP claimed Sunday it would play a "vital role" in the formation of the government in the southern state.