Hyderabad: The elections for the Telangana Legislative Council seat from the Mahbubnagar Local Authorities’ constituency were held peacefully on Thursday, March 28, with 99.86 percent of eligible voters having cast their ballots by the end of polling.
While the total number of eligible voters is at 1439, 1437 voters cast their ballot.
Competing for the seat are Naveen Kumar Reddy of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), M Jeevan Reddy representing the Congress, and independent candidate Sudershan Goud.
Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy also exercised his voting right in the by-election. As an ex-officio member in his capacity as the MLA from Kodangal, Revanth Reddy cast his vote in his home constituency.
Representatives from local bodies participated in the voting process across 10 polling stations in the erstwhile Mahabubnagar district.
Polling commenced at 8 am and concluded at 4 pm. A total of 1,439 voters, including municipal councillors, MPTCs, ZPTCs, and ex-officio members, were eligible to vote.
In anticipation of potential cross-voting, both the Congress and the BRS had relocated their elected representatives to Karnataka, Kerala, and Goa. All of them returned on Wednesday.
While the BRS holds a majority in the local bodies, comprising 71 percent of the seats due to its dominant performance in the 2019 elections, the Congress follows with 16.67 percent, the BJP with 8.23 percent, and others with 3.18 percent.
Despite the BRS’s stronghold, concerns about cross-voting loom large in this high-stakes by-election, deemed significant for both the Congress and the BRS ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
The bypoll was triggered by the resignation of MLC Kasireddy Narayan Reddy, who successfully contested and won as a Congress candidate in the recent legislative Assembly polls from the Kalwakurthy Assembly constituency.
In the prior Assembly elections, the Congress secured victory in 12 out of the 14 Assembly seats within the erstwhile Mahabubnagar district.
Vote counting is scheduled to take place on April 2.
(With inputs from agencies)
