HYDERABAD: The counting of votes for Huzurabad Assembly constituency bypoll began at 8.00 am on Tuesday amid tight security. TRS was leading during the counting of postal ballots when this report was filed.
All necessary arrangements have been made by the Election Commission of India for counting. The counting of votes in EVMs will begin in two halls after completion of counting of postal ballots. There will be 22 rounds of counting and will continue till afternoon. A total of 2,05,236 votes have been polled.
A total of 30 candidates are in fray in the bypolls, caused by the resignation of Eatala Rajender after he was dropped from the State Cabinet by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao following allegations of land grabbing. Rajender resigned from both Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the state Assembly to join Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Rajender, who had been representing Huzurabad seat since 2009, is contesting as a BJP candidate.
A neck-and-neck battle is predicted after TRS named its student wing leader Srinivas Yadav as its candidate against the former minister and four-time MLA Rajender.
A three-layer security arrangement is in place at the counting centre. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC have been imposed within 200 metre radius of the counting centres.
Though it was initially expected to be a three-cornered contest, the Congress clearly lagged behind BJP and TRS due to delay in announcing the candidate and launching the campaign. The Congress party has nominated 29-year-old political novice B. Venkat Narsing Rao, chief of the state's NSUI unit, as its candidate.
The constituency saw a long and bitter campaign with both TRS and BJP accusing each other of using money, liquor and other gifts to lure voters. TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and his son and TRS working president K. T. Rama Rao stayed away from the campaigning.
In 2018, Rajender had retained Huzurabad, defeating his nearest rival Kaushik Reddy of Congress by over 43,000 votes. The TRS candidate had polled 1,04,840 while Congress candidate secured 61,121 votes. BJP candidate P. Raghu polled only 1,683 votes, which was less than NOTA votes (2,867). Kaushik Reddy recently quit Congress and joined TRS.