Hyderabad, Nov 14 (IANS) Telangana’s ruling Congress looks set to wrest Jubilee Hills Assembly seat from Bharat Rashtra Samithi as it has consolidated its lead as counting of votes polled in the by-election proceeded on Friday.

After six out of 10 rounds of counting, Congress candidate Naveen Yadav improved his lead to over 19,000 votes against his nearest rival, Maganti Sunitha of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

The Congress candidate was ahead from the very first round and maintained the lead in all subsequent rounds.

Lankala Deepak Reddy of the BJP, who was in a distant third place, left the counting centre with disappointment.

Meanwhile, celebrations broke out in the Congress camp. The ruling party cadres were seen bursting firecrackers and distributing sweets at the party headquarters, Gandhi Bhavan.

The counting of votes was underway under tight security arrangements at Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy Stadium in Yousufguda.

Election authorities have arranged 42 tables for counting, and the entire process will be completed in 10 rounds.

District Election Officer R. V. Karnan said each round of counting is expected to take 40 minutes. The result is likely to be declared by 2 p.m.

Tuesday’s byelection saw 48.49 per cent polling. A total of 1,94,631 votes were polled. Officials said 99,771 men, 94,855 women and five others cast their votes. The number of postal ballots is 101.

The constituency has a total of 4,01,365 voters comprising 2,08,561 males, 1,92,779 females and 25 others.

As many as 58 candidates are in the fray in the by-election caused by the death of sitting MLA Maganti Gopinath of BRS.

The BRS fielded Gopinath’s wife, Sunitha, against the Congress’s Naveen Yadav. The BJP once again fielded Lankala Deepak Reddy.

Exit polls by several leading agencies had suggested that Congress is set to wrest the seat from BRS. The Congress party is projected to secure 46-48 per cent votes, while BRS is likely to trail with 41-42 per cent votes. The BJP may finish a distant third with just 6-8 per cent votes.

In 2023, Gopinath of the BRS had scored a hat-trick by defeating his nearest rival, Mohammed Azharuddin of the Congress, by a margin of 16,337 votes.

The BRS candidate secured 80,549 votes while Azharuddin polled 64,212 votes. BJP’s Deepak Reddy finished third with 25,866 votes. AIMIM’s Farazuddin was fourth with just 7,848 votes.

This time, the AIMIM, led by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, supported the Congress candidate.

–IANS

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