Telangana polls: Former PM Narasimha Rao's daughter ahead after first round

The ruling TRS candidate and former PM Rao's daughter S Vani Devi was ahead of her nearest BJP rival N Ramachander Rao after the completion of first round in election to Telangana Legislative Council

The ruling TRS candidate and

former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao's daughter S Vani Devi was ahead of her nearest BJP rival N Ramachander Rao after the completion of first round as the counting of votes in election to Telangana Legislative Council from two Graduates' constituencies was underway on Thursday.

Vani Devi, TRS nominee from Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy- Hyderabad Graduates' constituency, was leading by 1,054 votes after the completion of the first round of counting, official sources said.

While Vani Devi, an educationist and artist, got 17,439 first preference votes, Ramachander Rao, who is the sitting MLC from the seat, obtained 16,385 votes.

Counting was also underway at Nalgonda in the Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda Graduates constituency.

The counting of votes polled in the keenly-fought election from the two constituencies began on Wednesday.

However, the final result is expected on Thursday as big-sized ballot papers and jumbo ballot boxes were used for polling in view of the large number of candidates in fray.

The counting process is time consuming as the voters exercised their franchise in a preferential method.

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

While the Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad seat witnessed 67.26 per cent of polling, the voter turnout was 76.41 per cent in the Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda constituency.

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

Vani Devi is the ruling TRS candidate from the Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad Graduates constituency.

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, while counting was going on in Nalgonda for the Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda constituency.

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 it gained after impressive performance in the 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.