Hyderabad, Nov 11 : Polling was underway in the byelection for Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency in Hyderabad amid tight security on Tuesday.

The voting began at 7 a.m. at all 407 polling stations in the constituency, which covers posh Jubilee Hills and several middle-class and weaker section colonies and slums in the heart of the city.

A little over four lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the byelection, which is necessitated by the death of sitting MLA Maganti Gopinath of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

A total of 58 candidates are in the fray, but the main contest is between the ruling Congress party and opposition BRS and BJP.

The BRS has fielded Gopinath's wife Sunitha, while Naveen Yadav has entered the fray on the Congress ticket. The BJP has once again fielded Lankala Deepak Reddy.

Sunitha was among the first voters to cast her vote at Yellareddyguda Srinagar colony. She appealed to all voters to exercise their franchise.

Chief Electoral Officer C. Sudharshan Reddy said the polling process would continue till 6 p.m. and the voters standing in queues at polling centres at 6 p.m. would be allowed to cast their votes.

The Election Commission had made elaborate arrangements to ensure smooth, free and fair polling.

For the first time, drones have been deployed for surveillance at all polling stations. As many as 139 drones have been deployed for centralised aerial monitoring and real-time situation analysis, the CEO said.

The drones will help closely monitor the polling process at 407 polling stations located in 139 buildings. Real-time surveillance will provide a bird's-eye view of polling stations and help authorities in identifying any disturbances quickly.

A control room has been set up at the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) head office to monitor drone usage.

Hyderabad District Election Officer R.V. Karnan said live webcasting has been arranged in all polling stations for peaceful polling and maintaining law and order.

As many as 226 of the 407 polling stations in 65 locations have been identified as critical polling stations, where paramilitary forces have been deployed.

A total of 2,060 polling personnel were on duty. They include 515 polling officers and an equal number of assistant polling officers.

Keeping in view the large number of contesting candidates, Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) consisting of one Control Unit (CU), four Ballot Units (BUs) and one VVPAT have been provided to all polling stations. A total of 561 CUs, 2,394 BUs and 595 VVPATs were deployed.

Mobile counters were opened at all the polling stations to facilitate voters to deposit their mobile phones before entering polling stations and to take them after casting their vote.

According to Hyderabad Joint Commissioner of Police Tafseer Iqbal, 1,761 police personnel have been deployed.

Personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were deployed in 68 Polling Station locations.

There are a total of 4,01,365 voters in the constituency comprising 2,08,561 males, 1,92,779 females and 25 others.

According to DEO, there are 6,859 voters in the age group of 18-19 years, while 2,134 voters are above 85 years.

He said 103 absentee voters (above 85 years and PwD voters) have exercised their option for a postal ballot, and out of them, 101 have utilised postal ballot voting.

/IANS