TRS pockets 6 MLC seats sans fight

Elections will be held only in four districts, says EC

• No code in the following districts wherein the TRS candidates unanimously won six seats including one each in Adilabad, Nizamabad, Medak, Warangal and two seats in Karimnagar.

Hyderabad: MLC elections under local bodies quota will be held only in four districts as six of the total 12 seats were won unanimously by the TRS in five districts, according to Chief Electoral Officer

Bhanwar Lal.

Addressing a press conference at the Secretariat here, he said on the last day of withdrawals of nominations on Sunday afternoon that there existed no code in the districts as they witnessed unanimous elections. However, election code does exist in Mahabubnagar and Ranga Reddy districts with two seats each, Nalgonda and Khammam with one seat each and polling will begin on December 27 from 8 am to 4 pm. Results would be announced after counting votes on December 30, Bhanwar Lal said. There is no code in the following districts wherein the TRS candidates unanimously won six seats including one each in Adilabad, Nizamabad, Medak, Warangal and two seats in Karimnagar.

The Election Commission would send two senior IAS officials to each district as observers and take action against camps, he said. Members have to essentially cast their vote with first priority, second and the rest and also NOTA. Number of voters and polling stations district wise are –1,262 members will cast their votes in five polling stations in Mahabubnagar, 771 voters in Ranga Reddy, 1,110 voters in five polling stations in Nalgonda and 726 members in four polling stations in Khammam.

The EC is examining the explanation given by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and IT Minister KT Rama Rao on the notices served to them for code violation. Arrangements have been made and adequate Central force will be deployed in the districts for the smooth and fair conduct of the polling. A team of senior officials investigated into allegations of ‘camp politics’ in Kerala for luring members as it was reported in a section of media and it proved to be wrong, he added.

In Nizamabad, Dr Rekulapalli Bhoopathi Reddy was elected unanimously according to the Returning Officer and district Joint Collector A Ravinder Reddy. In all, three members filed nominations which include TRS candidate Dr R Bhoopathi Reddy, Congress candidate K Venkataramana Reddy and Independent candidate B Jagadeesh . While Congress candidate K Venkataramana Reddy withdrew his nomination, independent candidate B Jagadeesh withdrew his nomination and joined the TRS.

In Mahabubnagar, five candidates are left in the fray for two MLC seats. Two members out of seven withdrew and five candidates, two from the TRS and one each from the Congress, the TDP and an Independent are in the fray.

Among the two members who withdrew their nominations are K Srinivas and Bolla Karunakar, both Independent candidates. There are about 1,200 total local body voters in the district. Out of which about 982 are MPTCs, 64 are ZPTCs and the remaining are counselors and sarpahces in the district. Of these, the Congress is having the highest number of 367 MPTCs, while the TRS and the TDP stand the second and the third with 298 and 178 MPTCs respectively. The BJP has a count of 69 MPTCS followed by 63 Independent and 7 MPTCs from CPM and CPI in the district.

The interesting part in the district is, despite having less number MPTCs and ZPTCs, TRS surprisingly decided to contests two seats, while the Congress which is strong with more number is contesting only in one seat. According political analysts, the TRS attracted a large number of MPTCs and ZPTCS from other parties and is moving strategically to win both the MLC seats.

TRS nominee Konda Muralidhar Rao was elected unopposed form Warangal. The scrutiny of nominations took place on Thursday. The nomination by an Independent, A Narender Reddy was rejected by returning officer Prashanth J Patil as his nomination was incomplete, the BJP-TDP shied away from the contest and the decision by four Independents to pull out of the contest helped the TRS win unanimously.