Hyderabad, March 5
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) maintains the lead in the Telangana Legislative Council election from Medak-Nizamabad-Adilabad-Karimnagar Graduates' constituency as the counting of votes continued for the third day on Wednesday.
BJP candidate Anji Reddy was leading by about 5,000 votes over his nearest competitor V. Narender Reddy of the Congress party in the counting of second preference votes.
Anji Reddy polled 78,635 votes while Narender Reddy secured 73,644 votes. Prasanna Harikrishna of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was in third place with 63,404 votes.
Out of 56 candidates, 53 were eliminated in the second preference round.
The counting of second-preference votes was taken up after no winner emerged in the first-preference votes. The BJP polled around 34 per cent of the total first preference votes while the Congress secured 31.5 per cent and the BSP 27 per cent votes. Since none of the candidates got over 50 per cent votes, the counting of second preference votes was taken up.
The MLC election was held on February 27 in the preferential voting system through ballot papers.
Due to the big size of the ballot paper, it took more than a day for the counting staff to sort the votes. A large number of invalid votes also delayed the process of counting.
Out of 2,52,100 votes (including postal ballots) polled, about 28,000 were declared invalid.
A total of 2,50,106 voters cast their ballots in the Graduates' MLC polls on February 27 sealing the fate of 56 candidates.
Ruling Congress and opposition BJP are locked in a direct fight in this constituency, which is currently represented by senior Congress leader and former minister T. Jeevan Reddy.
In the election held on February 27, a total of 70.4 per cent of voters exercised their franchise.
Polling was also held the same day for Medak-Nizamabad-Adilabad-Karimnagar and Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda teachers' constituencies.
BJP-backed candidate Malka Komaraiah won the election from Medak-Nizamabad-Adilabad-Karimnagar teachers' constituency spread across 15 districts.
He won the seat with a margin of more than 5,700 first preference votes against his nearest rival Vanga Mahender Reddy of the PRTU (TS).
PRTU (TS) bagged the Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda seat. Its candidate P. Sripal Reddy emerged winner in second-preference votes. He secured 13,969 votes. Sitting MLC Narsi Reddy of UTF finished second.
- IANS