TRS makes clean sweep in Telangana Council polls

Hyderabad, Dec 14 (IANS) The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) made a clean sweep in the biennial elections to six seats of the Legislative Council from local authority constituencies.

The counting of votes for the elections held on December 10 was taken up on Tuesday and the process was completed in a couple of hours.

All six candidates of the TRS were elected with a comfortable margin in first preferential votes, dashing the hopes of some independent candidates supported by opposition parties who were banking on cross voting.

Local body representatives including corporators, councillors, ZPTC and MPTC members had cast their votes in the six constituencies in five undivided districts of Adilabad, Karimnagar, Khammam, Medak and Nalgonda

The polling was held for two seats in Karimnagar district and one each in the remaining four districts. A total of 5,326 voters were eligible to cast their votes while 26 candidates were in fray.

In Karimnagar district, TRS won both the seats. L. Ramana, who quit as Telugu Desam Party (TDP) state president to join TRS a few months ago, and Bhanu Prasad were elected on the basis of first preferential votes.

Out of 1,324 votes in Karimnagar, 1,320 were polled. The magic figure for a candidate to win the election was 441. Ramana secured 479 votes while Bhanu Prasad garnered 585 votes.

TRS rebel candidate and former Karimnagar mayor Sardar Ravinder Singh, who was backed by BJP, failed to cause an upset as he could secure only 232 votes. Other independent candidates polled eight votes while 17 votes were declared invalid.

In Adilabad, TRS candidate Dande Vithal won the seat defeating his nearest rival and independent candidate Pushpa Rani by a majority of 667 votes. Out of 860 valid votes, Vithal polled 742 while Pushpa Rani, backed by the opposition parties, could secure only 75 votes.

TRS candidate M.C. Koti Reddy was elected from Nalgonda district, trouncing his nearest rival and independent candidate K. Nagesh by a majority of 691 votes. Koti Reddy polled 911 votes while Nagesh could secure only 226 votes.

In Khammam district, T. Madhusudhan of TRS was elected with a majority of 238 votes. The ruling party candidate polled 480 votes while the opposition Congress candidate secured 242 votes.

Madhava Reddy of the TRS won the Council seat in Medak district by a majority of 524 votes. The ruling party candidate polled 762 votes while Congress candidate could secure only 238 votes.

The Election Commission had last month issued notification for election to six seats of the Council from local authority constituencies.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao's daughter K. Kavitha and five other candidates of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) were declared elected unanimously.

Kavitha was elected from Nizamabad constituency. The others who were elected to the upper house of the state legislature are Patnam Mahender Reddy, Shambipur Raju (both from Rangareddy district), Pochampally Srinivas Reddy (Warangal), Kasireddy Narayana Reddy and Kuchumalla Damodar Reddy (both from Mahabubnagar district).