Hyderabad: TRS candidates Palla Rajeshwar Reddy and Surabhi Vani Devi, who contested the recently held MLC elections from the two graduates’ constituencies – Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda and Mahbubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad, respectively, were leading when last reports came in on Thursday.
Since commencement of the counting late on Wednesday evening, both Rajeshwar Reddy and Vani Devi maintained the lead. Rajeshwar Reddy, at the end of fourth round, had established a comfortable lead of 15,438 votes against his nearest independent rival Teenmar Mallanna who polled 48,004 against the TRS candidate’s 63,442 votes. BJP candidate was pushed into the fourth position polling a little over 23,000 votes while Prof Kodandaram was in third position.
Vani Devi with 53,007 votes in her favour enjoyed a lead of 4,444 votes after completion of the third round of counting. BJP candidate N Ramachander Rao got 48,563 votes while independent candidate Professor K Nageshwar received 25,505 votes and Congress candidate G. Chinna Reddy got 15,035 votes.
Amidst tight security, the counting of first preference votes in Mahbubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad was taken up at LB Nagar indoor stadium and that of Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda at the Telangana State Warehousing Corporation at Arjalabavi on the outskirts of Nalgonda.
With the counting being a cumbersome process on account of jumbo ballot papers in both the constituencies, the final results are expected to be declared only on Friday morning provided the candidates win only on the strength of first preference votes.