As the period of silence before the Jubilee Hills assembly elections began on Sunday evening, GHMC Commissioner and District Electoral Officer RV Karnan announced that the administration has completed all arrangements for a smooth and secure polling process scheduled for Tuesday, November 11.
Elections will be held from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., with an additional hour allowed compared to past elections. The commissioner urged voters to participate in the democracy festival and help increase voter turnout, which is historically low in urban areas like Hyderabad.
According to the final voter list, 4,01,365 voters are entitled to vote in the by-election. Of these, 2,08,561 are men, 1,92,779 are women and 25 are other categories. The constituency has 18 service electors and 123 overseas electors. A total of 1,908 voters are disabled, while 6,859 are first-time voters in the 18-19 age bracket. The number of senior citizens over 85 is 2,134. There are 407 polling stations in 139 buildings with an average of 986 voters per station. The most voters are in polling station No. 09 with 1,233 voters and the least in polling station No. 263 with 540 voters. Eleven polling stations have more than 1,200 voters.
As there are 58 candidates running, each polling station will have one control unit, four polling units and one VVPAT. A total of 561 control units, 2,394 polling units and 595 VVPATs are available to the administration. During the press conference, Mr. Karnan explained that all the machines had passed checks and that ECIL engineers would accompany the sector officers on the polling day. “If there is any EVM malfunction, we intend to solve the problem within 30 minutes through standby machines which will be carried by sector officers,” he said.
Officials deployed
A total of 2,060 election workers were deployed, including 515 presiding officers, 515 assistant presiding officers and 1,030 OPOs, which corresponds to the entire requirement. Further, 19 nodal officers and 38 sector officers have been assigned with 45 static surveillance teams, 45 flying squads, four video surveillance teams, four video surveillance teams and two accounting teams monitoring expenditure and model code compliance.
Voters over 85 and people with disabilities were given the option to vote by mail. Of the 103 registered, 101 have already used this option. A distribution, reception and counting center has been set up at Kotla Vijaya Bhasker Reddy Stadium in Yousufguda. Counting will be done on 42 tables. The webcast will take place in each polling station and CCTV cameras have been installed inside and outside the premises.
“Drones will monitor the polling precinct throughout the polling day to detect gatherings or suspicious movement and drone footage is monitored in real time and if crowd formation or unauthorized activity is detected, teams will be dispatched immediately,” Mr Karnan said.
Police deployment
A three-tier arrangement was introduced to ensure security and prevent voter intimidation. Paramilitary forces will guard the inner cordon, state police the second layer and dedicated police the outer layer, explained Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order), Hyderabad Tafseer Iqbal.
The Hyderabad City Police, in coordination with the election authorities, has deployed 1,761 personnel including DCPs, Additional SPs, ACPs, Inspectors, Sub-Inspectors, Armed Reserve Police, Head Constables, Constables and Home Guards. 73 detachments of paramilitary forces were deployed, comprising eight companies.
Mr. Karnan clarified that voter information cards issued to voters are not proof of identity and serve only as a guide. “Voters must carry valid identity proof such as EPIC card or any of the 12 documents mentioned by the ECI,” he added. Those marked on the Absentee, Shifted and Dead (ASD) list will be double-verified at the booth in the presence of a polling agent.
Published – 9 Nov 2025 20:03 IST
