Hyderabad, June 4 (Reporter) Amid tight security, counting of votes polled in the May 13 Telangana Lok Sabha elections began at 8 am on Tuesday. In addition to the 17 Lok Sabha constituencies, the counting of votes for Secunderabad Cantonment constituency bypoll also taking place. These seats include Adilabad, Peddapalli, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Medak, Malkajgiri, Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Chevella, Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, Nagarkurnool, Bhuvanagiri, Warangal, Mahbubabad, Khammam, and Zahirabad. Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) were taken out of the well-protected strong rooms and placed at the counting centres where police have deployed a 3-tier security cordon and 12 companies of central forces for strongroom security. Besides a ban on liquor sales from 6 am on June 4 to 6 am on June 5, Section 144 has been imposed and unauthorised persons are prohibited within 100 meters of the vote-counting hall. There will be 1,855 counting tables for EVMS and 276 for postal ballots. Every counting centre has 14 tables except for six constituencies where the number of polling stations is more than 500, and at such places 28 counting tables will be used. At 8 am, postal ballots were taken up first for counting at 34 centres. After 30 minutes, the counting of votes stored in EVMs follows, officials said. Early trends are expected within an hour. Telangana recorded 65.67 per cent voter turnout in the single phase elections held to 17 Lok Sabha seats on May 13 and the main contest is between the ruling Congress, the BRS and the BJP despite 525 candidates in the fray. The voting percentage is almost three per cent more than that recorded in the 2019 general elections. The highest voter turnout of 76.78 per cent was registered in Bhongir Lok Sabha constituency, while the lowest polling percentage of 48.48 per cent was in the Hyderabad seat. Of the 17 seats in Telangana , three are reserved for SCs and two for STs. In the 2019 polls, the BRS won nine seats, while the BJP won four, Congress bagged three, and AIMIM won one. Key political parties, including the BJP, Congress, and BRS, are optimistic about win in a majority of the seats. Notably, the electoral battle in several constituencies narrowed to a contest between the BJP and the ruling Congress. Traditionally, Nalgonda and Khammam have been strongholds of Congress. Despite varied exit poll predictions, both the Congress and the BJP aim to secure a majority of seats from Telangana, which could be pivotal for forming the Central government in New Delhi. There are key contenders in the Lok Sabha segments in the state at Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Karimnagar, Malkajgiri, Chevella, Mahabubnagar, and Nizamabad. Union Minister and Telangana State President G Kishan Reddy, sitting MPs Bandi Sanjay and D Arvind are prominent candidates from the BJP. The key contenders from Congress include former union minister Balram Naik, from BRS former IPS officer R S Praveen Kumar and from AIMIM its party chief Asaduddin Owaisi. The bypoll for the Secunderabad Cantonment Assembly constituency was necessitated due to the death of sitting BRS MLA G Lasya Nanditha in a road accident earlier this year...////...