The by-election has been necessitated by the resignation of BRS MLC Kasireddy Narayana Reddy, following his elections as a Congress MLA in the recent Legislative Assembly polls.
File photo of the Telangana Legislative Council. (Supplied)
Polling for the by-election to the Telangana Legislative Council from the Mahabubnagar local authorities constituency went off peacefully on Thursday, 28 March.
In normal times, the election to one seat in the council may not have attracted much attention. However, as it was taking place ahead of Lok Sabha elections, political circles are watching the electoral contest with growing interest to detect any change in the direction of the wind.
Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy drove to Kodangal and cast his vote in the morning, while Prohibition and Excise Minister Jupally Krishna Rao exercised his franchise in Kollapur.
After the polling, Revanth Reddy conferred with the party leaders in Kodangal and was pleased to learn that all of them had voted. He emphasised how important even one vote would be in an election like this.
Polling was held at 10 centres in 14 Assembly segments in the entire undivided district.
The by-election has been necessitated by the resignation of the incumbent BRS MLC Kasireddy Narayana Reddy. He later joined the Congress and won the recent Assembly election from Kalwakurthy.
The contenders for the seat in the council include Manne Jeevan Reddy of the Congress, Naveen Kumar Reddy of the BRS and an independent Sudarshan Goud.
The electoral college comprises 1,439 votes, including 14 legislators, 888 MPTCs, 83 ZPTCs and 449 councillors. According to officials, the polling was 100 percent. The counting of votes will take place on 2 April.
Winning the seat has become a prestige issue mainly for the BRS which had been raring to spring back into fighting mode in the political arena by scoring a decisive victory, after being wounded badly in the recent Assembly elections.
For the Congress as well, capturing the seat is very crucial as losing it might change the narrative that has been built over the last few months, portraying it as a party on a winning streak. This perception is very important for the party as its next challenge will be facing the Lok Sabha elections.
A lot of homework has been done by both the BRS and the Congress. The BRS wants to retain the seat come hell or high water, while the grand old party is determined to wrest it in order to instil confidence in the party workers that the winning spree is continuing.
Among the voters, on the face of it, a majority of them belong to the BRS. However, after the advent of the Congress in the state, many of them have joined the grand old party, giving the jitters to the pink brigade.
The BRS polled 71 percent of votes in the last election in 2019 with 1,039 votes, followed by the Congress with just 241 votes (16.6 percent) among others.
The BRS which is determined to retain the seat, has shepherded more than 500 voters into camps in far-off tourism destinations to prevent further poaching.
As BRS’ methods of spiriting away leaders are very well known to the Congress, it also adopted similar methods to protect its flock by keeping them in camps.
(Edited by Shauqueen Mizaj)
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