BJP-backed candidate has edge over BRS-supported nominee

Hyderabad: BJP supported candidate A Venkata Narayan Reddy is leading over the BRS supported candidate G Chennakeshava Reddy in the Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahabubnagar Teachers Constituency. The Election Commission said that the final result would come by early morning on Friday. As many as 1500 personnel were working in three shifts for the counting which began after a delay of 25 minutes at 8.25 am at the Saroornagar Indoor Stadium. The authorities arranged 28 tables for counting and one supervisor and observer has been assigned for each table. The counting staff arranged each bundle with 100 votes and the police has imposed section 144 in the premises.

After the completion of counting of the first preferential votes, AVN Reddy secured 7,505 votes followed by BRS supported G Chennakeshava Reddy with got 6,584 votes. The BJP candidate had a lead of 921 votes. The other candidates who were in fray include independent candidate P Manik Reddy with 4,569 votes followed by Congress supported candidate G Harshvardhan Reddy with 1,907 votes and Katepally Janardhan Reddy with 1,236 votes. Interestingly one candidate Tripurari Ananthnarayan could secure only one first preferential vote and K Sayanna could secure six first preferential votes. There were 21 candidates in fray in the constituency. According to the election personnel the majority of the invalid votes were polled in favour of AVN Reddy.

The election for the Council seat under the Teachers quota was held on March 13. There were 29,720 registered voters and over 90 per cent polling was recorded in the constituency with total votes polled were 25,868. Of the total votes polled, 452 votes were invalid. For a candidate to be declared as winner, the total votes he should secure were more than 12,709 first preferential votes. The authorities said that they would continue elimination of candidates one by one until they reach the quota of 12,709 votes.  With none of the candidates securing these numbers, the authorities started counting the second preferential votes. The election authorities took up elimination of the candidates with the least first preferential votes and the vote value was added to the nearest candidate.