Hyderabad: As voters lined up to vote for the three MLC seats on Thursday, there were two booths which didn’t need a queue. They had only one voter each.
The two booths located in remote forest area of Asifabad and Jayashankar Bhupalpally districts were set up exclusively to ensure the lone voters didn’t miss their date with democracy. The two polling stations were part of the teachers’ constituency.
On Thursday, elections were held for one graduates’ seat from Medak-Nizamabad-Karimnagar-Adilabad, and two teachers’ seats from Medak-Nizamabad-Karimnagar-Adilabad and Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda constituencies.
According to Telangana chief electoral officer (CEO) C Sudharshan Reddy, the polling stations were located in difficult to access forested regions, necessitating dedicated arrangements for each registered voter. Similar arrangements were also made in other remote locations, but these two cases stood out due to the presence of only one voter at each booth, he said.
The lone voter of Appajipeta village in Bhupalpally was J Sudhakar. A school assistant at Bhupalpally High School, he travelled on foot to the booth set up exclusively for him. Expressing gratitude, Sudhakar acknowledged the efforts of election authorities to ensure his right to vote.
“I am thankful for this arrangement. It feels special to have a booth set up just for me. I encourage everyone to vote,” he said after casting his ballot.
Sudharshan Reddy said other remote areas included Adilabad’s Gadiguda and Jaishankar Bhupalpally’s Pamela which had one polling station; and Komaram Bheem Asifabad’s Penchikelpet, Mancherial’s Bheemini and Bhupalpally’s Malharrao which had two polling stations. All these locations in forested areas served as common polling stations for both teachers and graduates.
Polling stations were set up within a 16 km radius of each other. Despite the challenging terrain, officials ensured that every registered voter had the opportunity to cast their vote. The CEO confirmed that all voters assigned to these stations exercised their franchise.
Following the completion of polling, officials returned to the district headquarters to deposit the ballot box.
The CEO said the initiative underscored the Election Commission’s commitment to making the electoral process accessible, even in sparsely populated forest regions. Polling staff and security personnel were deployed at each location to facilitate smooth voting.
“Polling went on peacefully in all three MLC seats. Initially, at one place, people didn’t come for voting, demanding a road. However, the issue was sorted out,” he said.
