: As much as 55.89 per cent polling was recorded till one pm during the polls for Telangana urban local bodies on Wednesday.
Polling for 120 municipalities and nine corporations in Telangana is being held amid tight security with people queuing up to cast their votes.
The polling, which began at 7 a.m, will end at 5 p.m, officials said.
Barring stray incidents of arguments and counter- arguments among cadre of various political parties, polling went on smoothly, a seniorofficial of the State Election Commission said.
Ministers Jagadish Reddy and Niranjan Reddy and Telangana Congress chief and Lok Sabha member Uttam Kumar Reddy and his wife Padamvathi were among the prominent leaders who cast their vote in their respective urban bodies.
"It is unfortunate that the ruling party resorted to misuse of power during these elections. They tried to win the elections with money power. We feel that this is not good for democracy," the Congress leader told reporters after casting his vote.
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The elections will be held for 2,647 wards in municipalities and 382 divisions in corporations.
However, councillors to 80 wards and corporators for three divisions have been elected unopposed, Telangana State Election Commission said.
A total of 50,000 personnel have been deployed for fair and peaceful conduct of elections.
Special arrangements have been made in Left wing extremist affected districts.
According to State Election Commissioner Nagi Reddy, there will be an average of 800 voters per booth.
As per the statistics provided by the commission, the Congress could not field candidates in over 400 wards while BJP in over 700.
In a first-of-its-kind step in the country, the commission is using facial recognition app in a bid to counter impersonation of voters on Wednesday and ten polling stations in Kompally Municipality of Medchal Malkajgiri district have been selected for the pilot project.
The Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM party submitted a memorandum to the SEC urging it not use the app as it would allegedly invade the privacy of the voters.
There will be 7,961 polling stations with 45,000 staff overseeing the poll process, a statement from the SEC said.
The state police said it has taken all measures for maintaining law and order during the polling.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi working president and Minister K T Rama Rao has exuded confidence about his party winning a lion's share of wards and divisions.
Both the national parties, which failed to put up a good show in the rural local bodies elections held last year, are keen to prove their strength this time.
Karimnagar Municipal Corporation will go for polls on January 25 and the results declared on January 27.