Polling started on a brisk note in Bobbili and on a dull note in Karimnagar, especially in rural areas. The turnout was initially sluggish in the towns but gathered momentum later. In all, 72 percent of the voters in Bobbili and 57.5 percent in Bobbili cast their votes, according to official figures.

Karimnagar is witnessing a four-cornered contest between Telangana Rashtra Samithi's K Chandrasekhar Rao, Congress candidate T Jeevan Reddy, Telugu Desam Party nominee L Ramana and Bharatiya Janata Party's Ch Vidyasagar Rao, even though a total of 13 candidates are in the fray.

The by-election in Karimnagar was caused by resignation of KCR from the Lok Sabha after he quit Dr Manmohan Singh [Images] Cabinet and withdrew from the United Progressive Alliance. KCR has termed the by-poll as a "referendum" on the separate Telangana state demand while the rival parties rejected his claim.

Both TRS and BJP are contesting on the separate statehood plank while the Congress is banking on development of the region and TDP has expressed its support for "Samaikya" (United) Andhra Pradesh.

In Karimnagar, the district police made unprecedented security arrangements by deploying 35 companies of Central Reserve Police Force and Border Security Force and 15 companies of state forces from neighbouring districts such as Adilabad, Warangal, Nizamabad and Medak.

A dozen check posts were set up on the district borders while combing operations were conducted to ward off any threat from Maoists, especially in 98 villages which were identified as hyper-sensitive. The police, as per the orders of the Election Commission, packed off about 5,000 non-local campaigners.

Karimnagar has a total of 1.42 million voters, including 715,000 women. In all, 3,541 electronic voting machines were deployed in 1,550 polling stations across the constituency. As many as 1,705 presiding officers and assistant presiding officers, 5,382 polling officers, 144 zonal officer and 151 route officers were drafted for polling duties.

In Bobbili constituency, the electorate of 1.02 million includes 521,000 women. In all, 10,072 polling booths were set up. Eight candidates, including a BJP nominee, are in the fray but the contest is mainly between Ms Botsa Jhansi Rani, Congress candidate and wife of Marketing Minister Botsa Satyanarayana, and K Appala Naidu, TDP nominee and son of former MP K Pydithalli Naidu, whose death had necessitated the by-poll.