Voting for Nagarjunasagar Assembly bypoll in Telangana began on Saturday morning amid tight security.
Polling started at 7 am and will continue till 7 pm, with the last hour earmarked for covid patients.
In all, there are 2,20,300 voters in the constituency, the bypoll for which was necessitated by the death of MLA Nomula Narasmhaiah of the ruling TRS.
Officials said polling is being held at 346 centres in the constituency in Nalgonda district.
All Covid guidelines are in place for the polling, with 5,535 personnel deployed for overseeing the polling day activities.
The poll authorities have arranged 1,446 electronic voting machines.
The byelection will decide the political fortunes of 41 candidates.
The poll has the ruling TRS pitted against a resurgent BJP, and the Congress which is trying to claw it’s way back to political relevance in the state.
The TRS has fielded Nomula Bhagat, son of the deceased MLA, while the Congress has fielded it’s strongman and former Minister K Jana Reddy. The BJP is represented by P Ravi Kumar Naik.
The bypoll has acquired significance following the BJP wresting the Dubbaka Assembly bypoll from the ruling TRS in November last year.