Hyderabad: Cross-voting dampens TRS victory celebrations

Hyderabad: Though TRS may claim that it has won all the six Council seats under the Local Authorities' Constituencies, the majority of TRS candidates had taken a nosedive and there have been clear instances of cross-voting in Karimnagar, Khammam and Medak. In Nalgonda TRS succeeded in bagging some Congress votes.

The results had left the TRS leadership puzzled as they had taken all measures to keep their flock together till the last minute and held several rounds of mock polling. But still some of the public representatives indulged in cross-voting.

The TRS candidates have won from the six seats which went for polls, including Dande Vithal (Adilabad), T Bhanu Prasad and L Ramana (Karimnagar), MC Koti Reddy (Nalgonda), V Yadava Reddy (Medak) and T Madhusudhan (Khammam). In Khammam LAC, the Congress party which had just 96 votes secured 240 votes. The TRS candidate T Madhusudhan got 480 votes. There were 12 invalid votes and one independent got only four votes. Party sources said that former MP P Srinivas Reddy might have played spoilsport for the TRS party in the district.

In Karimnagar, the two TRS candidates T Bhanu Prasad polled 584 votes and L Ramana secured 479 votes. The rebel candidate and former mayor Ravinder Singh got 231 votes. It is being said that he had got votes from BJP, Congress and TRS public representatives. BJP and Congress had extended support to him.

In Medak LAC, the TRS candidate V Yadava Reddy polled 762 votes whereas Congress candidate and wife of Congress MLA T Jagga Reddy, T Nirmala secured 238 votes. Congress has 231 votes in this constituency but they got seven extra votes which are from TRS, Jagga Reddy claims.

He said the Congress party had registered a moral victory in the elections. Jagga Reddy had stated that he would resign from the assembly if his wife did not get the Congress votes. He said it is now proved that the Congress vote bank here was intact.

Amidst this scenario, TRS heaved a sigh of relief as it got more votes than its strength in Nalgonda.

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