Council polls: Cong candidate loses

The seventh candidate fielded by the Congress party in the state legislative council elections held on Thursday lost as some MLAs apparently resorted to cross voting. After the completion of counting of first priority votes, Mohammad Jani of the Congress got only 17 votes as against 27 to win the election whereas the Congress-backed MIM candidate got nine votes more than what he needed.

Some of the MLAs loyal to YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s son Jagan Mohan Reddy are said to have defied the party whip and intentionally cast their votes in favour of the MIM candidate in a bid to defeat the party candidate. The reason behind casting their votes to the Congress-backed MIM candidates was to not give any scope for political rivals to accuse Jagan as anti-minority.

Elections to 10 seats in the state Legislative Council were held amid fears of cross voting with both the ruling Congress and the opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) fielding one extra candidate each to keep the extra votes of their respective parties from going to rivals. Of this, nine seats — 6 Congress and 3 TDP candidates — have a clear chances of winning on a first priority voting, based on the strength of the MLAs who elect these members through a secret ballot. Those who get votes little under the required 27 votes also have a chance by getting the second and third priority votes polled in their favour.

The counting of second priority votes was still underway at the time of writing this news.

Meanwhile, the lone Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS ) candidate who lacked the required strength of votes, though backed by two Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs, also lost.