The electoral fortunes of the contestants in the Warangal Lok Sabha by-election are now sealed in the EVMs, as polling came to an end at 5 pm today. As many as 23 candidates are in the fray; but the main fight appears to be between the ruling TRS, Congress and the BJP candidates. The BJP candidate is supported by the TDP. Polling went off peacefully.
At the end of polling, nearly 65 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise, in 1,778 polling stations spread across the seven Assembly segments in the Lok Sabha constituency.
The by-election, caused by the resignation of Kadiam Srihari, who had been inducted as Deputy Chief Minister in KCR Government, is considered as a referendum on the functioning of the TRS Government headed by K Chandrasekhar Rao. The defeat or victory with less majority than in the 2014 election of the TRS candidate will be a set-back to the ruling party and it will give scope for the opposition parties to raise a tirade against KCR contending that he had failed to deliver during his 16 months of regime. In case the ruling party candidate gets more majority, it will be shock to the opposition parties, whose leaders are flaying the State Government for they called is failures on all fronts. In the 2014 elections, Kadiam Srihari secured a massive majority of more than three lakh votes. He polled 56.33 per cent of the votes, while the Congress nominee got 22.41 per cent and the BJP 15.93 per cent.
NOTA (None of the above candidates) was provided in the election this time. Polling started a little late in some of the polling stations, as the EVMs failed to work due to technical snags. For the first time, photographs of the contestants were affixed on the EVMs Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari, TDP leader Errabelli Dayakar Rao, TRS candidate Dayakar, congress Member of Rajya Sabha Rapolu ananda Bhaskar, former Chief whip Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy were among those who exercised their franchise. (NSS). .