Voters at sea over constituencies in Hyderabad

By M H Ahssan

With just 10 days left for polling, there is still confusion among voters in the city about their Assembly and Parliament constituencies.

For instance, a voter residing in Chaitanyapuri area will have to vote for candidates in the fray for the L B Nagar assembly constituency, but residents in the colonies beyond Dilsukhnagar like NTR Nagar, Alkapuri, RK Puram and Vasavi Colony come under the Maheshwaram assembly constituency.

LB Nagar voter has to elect the Malkajgiri parliament candidate and Maheshwaram constituency voter has to cast his vote for Chevella Parliament candidate.

Until delimitation, all the areas were under the Nalgonda Lok Sabha constituency. As there is no clarity on the constituencies, helpline numbers of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) are being flooded with enquiries on the Assembly and Parliament constituencies and polling booths.

Though the delimitation of constituencies was completed an year ago, neither the GHMC nor political parties tried to clear confusion among the voters.

Voters of Malakpet constituency will have to vote for Hyderabad parliament candidate and L B Nagar voters for the Malkajgiri Lok Sabha candidate.

There is more confusion in Secunderabad area where some parts of Secunderabad are merged with the Sanathnagar constituency. Padmaraonagar, Bansilalpet and Bholakpur are now in Sanathnagar. Earlier they were part of the Secunderabad constituency.

Now, West Marredpally comes under the Secunderabad Cantonment and East Marredpally voters are in Secunderabad assembly constituency. The areas nearby Secunderabad railway station like Rezimental Bazar are in Secunderabad Cantonment assembly segment.
Secunderabad and Sanathnagar assembly voters elect Secunderabad parliament candidate, Secunderabad Cantonment voters cast their vote for the Malkajgiri Lok Sabha candidate.

Ambedkarngar behind Rail Nilayam in Secunderabad falls under Cantonment constituency but the surrounding colonies of Ambedkarnagar are part of Secunderabad constituency.

“I do not know what is the basis for delimitation of assembly segments,” P Gopal a resident of Ambedkarnagar said.

Similarly part of Kukatpally area comes under the Kukatpally and the rest under the Serilingampally assembly constituency.

“Election authorities should have conducted awareness programmes among the voters. I do not know Pragatinagar of Kukatpally is in Kukatpally constituency or Serilingampally segment,” C V Bhaskar, a software employee said. When contacted district election officer M T Krishnababu said people could get the information from ceoandhra.com website, toll free numbers of GHMC and election commission helpline numbers.