HYDERABAD: The counting of votes polled in the legislative council elections for the six local authorities’ constituencies on December 10 will be taken up on Tuesday.
The results are likely to be announced by afternoon. Polling for the six MLC seats — two in Karimnagar and one each in Adilabad, Medak, Khammam and Nalgonda — was held on December 10.
The ruling TRS is confident of winning all the six seats, while BJP-supported independent candidate and TRS rebel Sardar Ravinder Singh is hopeful of scoring an upset win in Karimnagar.
TRS president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao didn’t cast his vote as he was sure of a party sweep.
TRS wary of invalid votes
State BJP chief Bandi Sanjay and a couple of MPs and MLAs of Congress had also skipped the December 10 polling as numbers were staked against them.
In all, 26 candidates are in the fray for six seats. Results in Karimnagar, Medak, Khammam and Adilabad seats are being looked at keenly since independent candidates had the backing of Congress, BJP and some organisations.
“A huge number of invalid votes are expected to be polled as the election was held on ballot paper. Voters had to mark preferences like 1, 2, 3. TRS conducted training and mock polling for its elected representatives. To avoid confusion, it asked voters to give only one preference to candidates in four districts and divided voters for its two candidates — L Ramana and T Bhanuprasad — in Karimnagar,” a TRS leader said.
Though TRS has sufficient number of voters, it held camps in Goa, Bengaluru and Mysuru for voters of Karimnagar, Medak and Khammam for about two weeks to keep them together and stop them from being poached by rival parties. They were directly brought to polling stations in special buses on voting day.
If TRS is worried over invalid votes, Congress is apprehensive about cross voting. In Nalgonda, party-supported candidate K Nagesh, ZPTC member and also party floor leader in Nalgonda zilla parishad, is apprehensive that 400 voters from Congress might have voted for TRS. Congress candidates — Nirmala, wife of Sangareddy MLA T Jagga Reddy, and R Nageshwara Rao — are hoping to wrest Medak and Khammam. The Congress had also conducted camps to prevent poaching.
Sources said with parties offering cash and benefits, cross voting had taken place in Karimnagar, Medak and Khammam. Pushparani, independent candidate supported by Thudum Debba, Congress, BJP and some organisations, is also confident of winning the Adilabad seat.
