5 in the fray for Council seat

Warangal: Contrary to the previous elections for the Legislative Council seat under Warangal Local Authorities' constituency that ended on unanimous vote in favour of the TRS in 2015, this time around the by-poll would see five candidates in the fray including Congress, TRS and three independents.

At the end of withdrawals of nominations on Friday, those remained in the contest are--TRS' Pochampally Srinivas Reddy, Congress' Engala Venkat Ram Reddy and three independents – Annarapu Yakaiah of Mahabubabad district, Thakkallapally Ravinder of Narsampet in Warangal Rural district and Rangaraju Ravinder of Warangal city, according to the returning officer and Urban district joint collector S Dayanand.

It may be mentioned here that on the first day of withdrawals, as many as 13 candidates of the total 19 opted out of the race for the Council seat. On the last day on Friday, one more candidate withdrew from the fray. The polling will be held on May 31 and the counting on June 3. It may be noted here that the outgoing ZPTCs and MPTCs whose term is to end on July 5 are eligible to cast their votes.