Exit polls take fizz out of TRS hopes

Warangal/Mahabubabad: Finally, the tantalising wait for all the candidates in the fray for Warangal (SC) and Mahabubabad Lok Sabha (ST) constituencies is to end with the counting of votes in just about 24 hours. Indeed, it's been a nerve-racking wait for them as they have to spend six weeks of sleepless nights to get to know their fate, which is stored in the electronic voting machines (EVMs).

It may be recalled here that elections to 17th Lok Sabha held in Telangana on April 11, the first of the seven-phase voting for the largest democratic country in the world that took a marathon six weeks.

Since the exit polls are out a couple of days ago, the TRS is upbeat believing that its irrigation projects, pensions and other populist schemes that ensured its win in the Assembly elections held in December have once again come to the party. On the other hand, the Opposition parties, especially the Congress, hopes it big turning the tables on TRS banking upon poll arithmetic that people would understand the difference between the regional and national parties when it comes to the matter of electing Central government.

While sitting TRS MP Pasunuri Dayakar and Dommati Sambaiah of Congress have their fingers crossed to do well in the election, BJP cadres are also upbeat that their candidate Chintha Samba Murthy has an outside chance especially with all the exit polls predicting a rosy picture for the saffron party to retain the power again.

Even though the TRS says that gist of their fight is not merely winning but for securing huge majority, it's locally said that it may not be possible for Pasunuri Dayakar to repeat his 2015 by-poll feat where he won with a record margin of nearly 4.60 lakh votes. The voter turnout that fell to 63.55 per cent is par below compared to 78.54 per cent in 2014 general elections and 68.50 per cent in 2015 by-poll.

Elsewhere in Mahabubabad Lok Sabha constituency, TRS candidate Maloth Kavitha appears favourite to win the election, this despite she was engaged in a triangular contest. Her main opponents are Congress' Porika Balaram Naik and BJP's Jatoth Hussain Naik. With the results are to be declared only after the tallying of voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips with the electronic voting machine (EVM) count, the people will have to wait more time than expected.

The counting of slips is expected to consume four to five hours, it's learnt.

It may be recalled here that according to Supreme Court's orders, the authorities will have to tally VVPAT slips and EVM count in five polling stations from each Assembly segment. In all, VVPAT slips of 35 polling stations will be counted in each Parliament seat.

Meanwhile, the TRS cadres appeared to have disappointed over the outcome of exit polls that predicted BJP to form the government at Centre on its own. "With the exit polls suggesting that BJP is on course to win second term, the fizz out of the hopes of TRS leaders, who are expecting to play a key role in the national politics, appear to be dashed. This despite the exit polls indicates that TRS is likely to capture more than 12 Parliament seats," a senior TRS leader told The Hans India.