Warangal: High turnout leaves poll pundits guessing

Warangal: Sunday's Graduates Council elections - Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda and Hyderabad-Ranga Reddy-Mahbubnagar - are said to be the most combative in the recent past. Thanks to the political turnaround scripted by the BJP since that election to Dubbaka Assembly by-poll and followed by a massive performance in the GHMC elections much to the chagrin of ruling TRS.

KCR is not the kind of a politician, who keeps licking his wounds in silence. Thus, the Graduates council polls have become much more interesting with the ruling TRS going all out for the win thereby to stop the Cinderella run of the BJP, which of late set for phenomenal growth in Telangana.

Since the fate of the candidates in fray for the two Graduates council seats was sealed in ballot boxes on Sunday, several theories have been doing rounds. Even the political pundits were putting on blank faces when asked about the possible outcome of the elections. Firstly, they were flabbergasted by the massive turnout witnessed in both the graduates constituencies. Both the constituencies registered a high poll percentage compared to the turnout in 2015. Then WL-KMM-NLG had recorded 39 per cent and the MBNR-RR-HYD witnessed 54 per cent. This time around, it was 64.7 per cent and 59.96 per cent respectively.

In general perception, a higher turnout would favour the ruling party. But another school of thought says high turnout means venting out anger against the ineffectual governance.

The TRS camp believes that its candidate Palla Rajeshwar Reddy could win the election with the first preference vote, which no candidate in the recent past was able to do so. Both BJP's G Premender Reddy and Congress' S Ramulu Naik were also confident of turning the tables on TRS when the counting of votes takes place in Nalgonda on Wednesday (March 17). On the other hand, the candidates of other parties and the independents were curious about the second preferential vote.

In erstwhile Warangal, where the number of votes polled was 1,32,849 of the total 1,81,313, the speculation is rife that Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) Prof Kodandaram had garnered more second preferential votes than his counterparts.

According to the system, a candidate must secure 50 per cent of polled votes plus one to win the election. Presumed it does not happen after the counting of first preferential votes, the counting of second preferential votes takes place. Likewise, this procedure will be repeated until a candidate secures 50 per cent votes plus one.