The counting of votes will be taken up for the Banswada Assembly constituency in Andhra Pradesh’s Nizamabad district today from 8am, there shall be 14 rounds of counting and the results will be out by afternoon. The by-poll, fought on the strong sentiments for separate Telangana state has recorded over 77 percent polling, held on Thursday. Polling authorities had set up 186 polling stations.
 
For the first time on a pilot basis, the Election Commission used web cameras and video cameras to monitor the polling trend in the Banswada by-election. About 400 students and faculty members from the IIIT Basar were roped in to operate web cameras in 186 polling stations. The cameras attached to laptops covered the polling which was monitored at Election Commission offices in New Delhi, Hyderabad and also the Collectorate here.

It may be noted that polling was conducted amid tight security, as it was held at a time when a general strike had been on in the region for one month. As the state government employees continued their strike, the election authorities had drafted personnel of the central government for poll duty.

By-election was necessitated as Mr. Srinivasa Reddy who won the seat in the 2009 elections as a candidate of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). The former minister in the Chandrababu Naidu cabinet quit TDP and also assembly membership a few months ago to join TRS, which is spearheading the movement for a separate state and he is believed to retain the seat.