Hyderabad, Nov 13 (IANS) The stage is set for the counting of votes polled in the bye-election to the Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency in Hyderabad.

Tight security arrangements were in place at Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy Stadium in Yousufguda, where the counting will begin at 8 a.m. on Friday.

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

According to the Chief Electoral Officer, C. Sudharshan Reddy, 48.49 per cent of the electorate cast their votes in the bye-election.

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.

A total of 103 absentee voters (above 85 years and Persons with Disabilities) exercised their option for a postal ballot, and out of them, 101 have utilised the postal ballot voting.

As many as 58 candidates are in the fray in the bye-election caused by the death of sitting MLA Maganti Gopinath of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

The BRS fielded Gopinath’s wife, Sunitha, who is locked in a direct fight with the ruling Congress party’s Naveen Yadav. The BJP once again fielded Lankala Deepak Reddy.

Exit polls by several leading agencies suggest 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.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president Mahesh Kumar Goud and several ministers, who actively campaigned in the byelection, are confident that the ruling party will win by a margin of 30,000 to 50,000 votes.

BRS leaders expressed the confidence that the party will retain the seat despite what they called large-scale irregularities by the ruling party.

State BJP president N. Ramchander Rao also remains confident of the party winning the bye-election.

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

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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