HYDERABAD: As expected, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) managed to win five MLC seats under the MLAs’ quota in the Telangana legislative council elections held here Monday. The polls, which attracted nationwide attention following the arrest of TDP MLA Revanth Reddy in a cash-for-vote scandal, also created history with a woman, Akula Lalitha (Congress), entering the Legislative Council for the first time.
The TDP drew a blank. Of the 118 votes polled, six were declared invalid. Incidentally, all the six were voted in favour of the TDP.
Though there were fears of cross-voting among all the parties, Sunday’s cash-for-vote scandal deterred the legislators from defying own parties. With six votes declared invalid, each contesting candidate had to secure a little over 16 votes to win. All the five members of the TRS secured 17 votes. The Congress polled 18 making it a cakewalk for Lalitha.
It was TDP candidate Vem Narender Reddy who had to bite the dust. The TDP and BJP have a combined strength of 15 and Reddy was banking on cross-voting and second preference votes.
The combine instead lost six of its own votes as its legislators chose NOTA (None of the Above) as their second preference. According to officials, all the five BJP MLAs and TDP’s R Krishnaiah cast their first preference vote for Reddy but chose NOTA as their second preference. The returning officer declared their votes invalid.
The Winners
Telangana Rashtra Samithi:
Kadiyam Srihari
Tummala Nageswara Rao
K Yadav Reddy
B Venkateswarlu
Nethi Vidyasagar