KARIMNAGAR: After the end of the sixth round of counting of the votes cast for the Medak-Nizamabad-Adilabad-Karimnagar Graduates constituency, BJP candidate C Anji Reddy was leading his nearest rival V Narender Reddy of the Congress by a margin of 7,118 votes.
Anji Reddy had, by the sixth round, secured 45,822 votes to Narender Reddy’s 38,704. BSP candidate Prasanna Harikrishna was in third place with 32,110 votes. Anji Reddy’s lead has thrown all predictions out of the window — pollsters had predicted a cakewalk for Narender Reddy, but his lead in the first few rounds has surprised everyone.
However, there is a long way to go — there will be 21 rounds of counting, with about 21,000 votes counted in each round. If there is no clear winner in the first round, the second preference votes will be tabulated.
The counting of votes commenced at 11.30 am on Tuesday and officials expect a declaration regarding the victor in another 36 hours. The number of votes cast was 2,50,106 (70.42% of the registered 3,55,159 voters). In the first round, Anji Reddy secured 6,712 votes, Narender Reddy 6,676 votes and Prasanna Harikrishna 5,867 votes. The trend continued in the subsequent rounds, with Anji Reddy maintaining his lead over Narender Reddy and Prasanna Harikrishna.
21,000 invalid votes now
According to authorities, the number of invalid votes cast by graduates saw a sharp spike, from 8,000 to 21,000. The authorities expect this number to cross 40,000 by the time the counting of votes is completed. As many as 800 staff have been counting the votes.