TRS thrash Congress to win Council seat

Warangal: The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has won the by-election to the Legislative Council seat under Warangal Local Authorities' Constituency here on Monday. TRS candidate Pochampally Srinivas Reddy defeated Congress nominee Engala Venkat Ram Reddy by 825 votes.

It may be mentioned here that of the 902 representatives of the local bodies in the electoral district, 883 had exercised their franchise on May 31.

The counting has begun at Enumamula Agriculture Market Yard here at 8 am in the presence of Election Observer Anitha Rajender, District Election Officer and Urban District Collector Prashanth Jeevan Patil and Returning Officer S Dayanand. The authorities arranged five tables to segregate the ballots candidate-wise and later took up counting on three tables. It didn't take much time for the authorities to announce the result.

While the TRS candidate polled 848 votes, the Congress barely managed to get 23 votes much lower than its expectations. The number of invalid votes was 12. Incidentally, the three independent candidates - Annarapu Yakaiah, Thakkallapally Ravinder and Rangaraju Ravinder – didn't get a single vote.

It may be mentioned here that the by-elections were necessitated owing to the resignations of Konda Muralidhar Rao. In 2015, Konda Murali was elected unopposed on TRS ticket. The by-poll is for the remainder of the term that ends on January 4, 2022.

Speaking to media persons, Pochampally Srinivas Reddy, popularly known as Varikole Srinivas Reddy, expressed gratitude to party leadership for giving him an opportunity to serve the people. He also thanked the councillors, corporators, ZPTC, MPTC and ex-officio members who elected him. "I would strive for the all-round development of Warangal in coordination with the other people's representatives," he said.

Minister for Panchayat Raj Errabelli Dayakar Rao said that they were confident of winning the Council seat right from the day one. "We are confident of sweeping the parishad polls as well when the vote count takes place on Tuesday (June 4). It's going to be Warangal's gift for Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and TRS working president KT Rama Rao," Errabelli said.

Mayor Gunda Prakash Rao, MP Banda Prakash, legislators D Vinay Bhaskar, Nannapuneni Narender, Thatikonda Rajaiah, Aroori Ramesh, Challa Dhanrma Reddy, KUDA chairman M Yadava Reddy and former SAAP director Rajanala Srihari were among others who greeted Pochampally Srinivas Reddy.