BRS raises concerns over irregularities in counting process of Graduates MLC bypoll

The Chief Minister extended his greetings to Chandrababu Naidu on the occasion of assuming the office of Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

Hyderabad: BRS candidate A Rakesh Reddy raised serious concerns about irregularities in the ongoing vote counting process for the Nalgonda-Khammam-Warangal Graduates MLC byelection. He stated that the results were being announced unilaterally and without transparency.

He sought the intervention of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to ensure a smooth and fair counting process. A BRS delegation, including Padi Kaushik Reddy and the BRS Legal Cell members, lodged a formal complaint with Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj in this regard and sought immediate action.

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They stated that though the BRS candidate secured a lead of 533 votes in third round and over 170 in fourth round, the election officials were recording it as a lead for the Congress candidate which is uncalled for. Speaking to the media on Thursday, Rakesh Reddy strongly objected to the behavior of the Returning Officer at the Nalgonda counting centre. He alleged that many irregularities were taking place to prevent his victory.

“They are sending our agents out from the counting halls and announcing results unilaterally. They are not even taking signatures from our agents after the rounds are completed, in violation of guidelines,” he said.

The BRS candidate stated that the police prevented him from meeting the Returning Officer, forcing him to wait for three hours. Pointing out discrepancies in the vote count, he said there was a difference of around 1,100 votes in a single hall.

“Our objections in the third and fourth rounds should be taken into consideration.We demand transparent counting,” he said.

A candidate who receives over 50 per cent of the valid votes, will be declared as the winner. However, if there is no clear victory, the winner will be decided through elimination method with candidates having lowest votes in each round being eliminated from the fray in the preferential order.

Official sources said at the end of fourth round, around three lakh valid votes and nearly 30,000 invalid votes were recorded. Congress candidate Chintapandu Naveen alias Teenmaar Mallanna received 1,22,813 votes and is leading with a 18,565 votes against BRS candidate Rakesh Reddy who was polled 1,04,248 votes after the fourth round of the counting is completed.

As none of the candidates received over 50 per cent votes, the officials took up counting of second preferential votes and the counting is expected to continue till Friday afternoon.

The counting of votes for the Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda Graduates constituency by-election began on Wednesday at a godown in Anishetti Duppalpalli village of Thipparthi mandal near Nalgonda.

A total of 52 candidates contested the bypoll, which saw a voter turnout of 72.44 percent from the 4,63,839 registered voters. The votes included 3,36,013 ballot votes and 2,139 postal ballots.