Huzurabad: The counting of votes for the prestigious Huzurabad assembly bypoll began on Tuesday early morning. The electoral battle became a battle of prestige for both chief minister Telangana K. Chandrasekar Rao (KCR) and BJP’s Eatala Rajender (who is a former aide and ex-TRS cabinet minister). Polling started at 8 a.m., and a total of 22 rounds of counting will be held.
In the fiercely contested by-election, 86.33 percent of nearly 2.37 lakh voters cast their votes. The poll percentage was 2.5 per cent higher than the turnout in 2018. Out of 2,36,837 voters, 2,05,053 cast their votes in the by-election, which was peaceful barring minor skirmishes between the TRS and BJP supporters.
A total of 30 candidates were in the fray in the by-election, 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.
Live updates:
19:00: Bharatiya Janata Party’s Eatala Rajender declared winner in Huzurabad by elections with a majority of 22,735 votes.
18:45: In Round 21, BJP garnered 101732 votes. Eatala is leading by 22,735 votes.
18:30: After 20 rounds of counting in the Huzurabad bypoll, the BJP candidate Eatala Rajender has a total lead of 21,015 votes over the ruling TRS candidate Gellu Srinivas Yadav.
18:04: By the end of 19th round, BJP’s Eatala Rajender gets 91,312 votes while Gellu Srinivas Yadav of TRS gets 71,771 votes
16:50: In round 16, the BJP comfortably got a lead of 13,195 votes over the TRS. The ruling party secured 60,980 votes, while the BJP and Congress secured 74175 and 2,266 votes.
16:30: In round 15, BJP got 68,486 votes while TRS and Congress got 57,003 and 11,483 votes respectively.
16:00: round 14 ends with BJP acquiring 63,079 votes and TRS getting 53645 votes. BJP is leading by 9434 votes. The Congress has gotten 1983 votes so far.
15:30: In round 13, BJP has 58,333 and TRS has 49,945 votes. The BJP is leading by 8388 votes.
15:15: After round 12, Eatala Rajender has taken the lead against Gellu Srinivas by 1217 votes in this round. The BJP is leading with 53,497 while the TRS has 46,974 votes.
2:45 pm: BJP’s Eatala Rajender who secured 44707 votes is leading by 5,691 votes after the tenth round. The number of votes polled in favour of TRS and Congress candidates is 39016 and 1467 respectively.
2:00 pm: BJP candidate secured 40412 votes and he is leading by 5105 votes after the ninth round. TRS and Congress candidates get 35307 and 1349 votes respectively.
1:34 pm: Rajender is leading by 3270 votes after the eighth round.
1:13 pm: BJP candidate Eatala Rajender is leading by 3432 votes after the seventh round. The candidates of BJP, TRS, and Congress secured 31021, 27589 and 1086 votes respectively.
1:00 pm: After the sixth round, the number of votes polled by BJP, TRS, and Congress candidates is 26983, 23797, and 992 respectively.
12:30 pm: BJP is leading by 2169 votes after the end of the fifth round. BJP, TRS, and Congress candidates bagged 22327, 20158 and 812 votes respectively
11:18 am: Fourth round of counting completed. BJP’s Eatala Rajender is leading by 1,825 votes.
10:50 am: After the third round, the number of votes polled by BJP, TRS, and Congress candidates is 13525, 12262, and 446 respectively.
10:30 am: Second round of counting comes to end. Currently, Eatala Rajender leads by 358 votes. He has secured 9461 total votes while TRS and Congress candidates bagged 9103 and 339 votes respectively.
9:40 am: After the first round of counting, BJP candidate Eatala Rajender leads by 166 votes. Rajender bagged 4610 votes while TRS and Congress candidates pocketed 4444 and 199 votes respectively.
Exit polls
Rajender, who has been representing the Huzurabad seat since 2009, contested as a BJP candidate. He was locked in a direct fight against Gellu Srinivas Yadav of the TRS.
Earlier, some exit polls showed that BJP will emerge victorious with about 50 percent votes. TRS is likely to poll 43 percent. The Congress party’s Venkat Balmoor may get just 5.7 percent votes.
In 2018, Congress had garnered 34 percent votes. Rajender had retained the seat defeating his nearest rival Kaushik Reddy of Congress by over 43,000 votes. The TRS candidate had polled 1,04,840 while the Congress candidate secured 61,121 votes.