Telangana MLC elections: TRS candidates maintain lead over rivals

The ruling TRS candidates, including former PM Narasimha Rao's daughter Vani Devi, were ahead of their rivals as the counting of votes continued in the election to Telangana Legislative Council

The ruling TRS candidates,

including former PM P V Narasimha Rao's daughter S Vani Devi, were ahead of their rivals as the counting of votes continued on Friday in the election to Telangana Legislative Council from two Graduates constituencies.

Vani Devi, TRS nominee from Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy- Hyderabad Graduates' constituency, was leading over her nearest BJP rival and sitting MLC N Ramachander Rao by 7,626 votes after the completion of six rounds of counting, official sources said.

Meanwhile, TRS nominee and sitting MLC Palla Rajeshwar Reddy was leading in the Khammam-Warangal-Nalgonda Graduates constituency.

The process of counting of votes began on Wednesday but is expected to conclude on Friday or even later as newspaper-sized ballot papers were used for polling in view of the large number of candidates in the fray and also because the voters exercised their franchise in a preferential method.

Polling was held on March 14 for the two Graduates' constituencies.

The total number of voters in the two constituencies is over 10 lakh.

As many as 93 candidates were in the fray from Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad constituency, while 71 nominees contested from the Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda constituency.

The votes of the Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad constituency are counted in the state capital.

Having suffered setbacks in the Dubbak assembly constituency bypoll and Hyderabad civic polls late last year, the TRS made a determined bid to win the two seats, while the BJP sought to continue the momentum following its impressive performance in the Dubbak bye-election and Hyderabad civic election.

The Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad seat is witnessing a close contest as G Chinna Reddy of Congress, TDP''s Telangana unit president L Ramana and former MLC K Nageshwar, a journalism professor and prominent analyst, are in the fray.

The main candidates from Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda seat are sitting MLC Palla Rajeshwar Reddy of TRS, G Premender Reddy (BJP), Ramulu Naik (Congress) and Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS) leader M Kodandaram.