Polling underway in Telangana, Rajasthan

Polling began in Telangana on Thursday amid tight security to elect a new Assembly.

The polling is being held in 106 constituencies of which 13 are Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected constituencies.

The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is facing a resurgent Congress-led People's Front in its bid for a second term. 

The TRS government dissolved the Assembly about eight months ahead of the schedule in the hope of taking the Opposition parties by surprise but the Congress threw a surprise by coming up with an alliance in a bid to oust the ruling party. 

For the 119-member Telangana assembly where the Congress has tied up with rivals TDP, CPI and Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS), a new party floated by M. Kodandaram, who was once Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao's friend in the Telangana movement.

Telangana has 51,796 polling stations, an increase of 14.25 per cent over the previous election in 2013. 

A total of 2,274 candidates including 189 women fight for 199 constituencies out of total 200 constituencies of Rajasthan. 

In Rajasthan, votes will be cast at 51,687 polling booths.

In Rajasthan, 259 'pink' polling booths are managed exclusively by women officials and security personnel.