Congress candidate from Kodad N. Padmavathi Reddy and Thungathurthy candidate Addanki Dayakar may qualify for the ‘lost but won’ category of nominees.
On Tuesday right from the opening count of votes at 8 a.m. at the Agricultural Market Committee godowns here, it was clear the results were in store for something.
A total of 17 electronic voting machines reported technical snags up to the sixth round and yet Dayakar accumulated a majority of 2,353 — close to his final margin of defeat 2379 votes in 2014 — over Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s sitting MLA Gadari Kishore Kumar.
Started well
And in the counting for Kodad, TRS candidate Bollam Mallaiah Yadav started off the tally with a bang, continuing with a majority ranging between 100 and 700 votes in the first 10 of the total 20 rounds.
But the trend soon turned ‘the most heard figures’ in each round the election officials showed up for the announcement. The next rounds saw margins range from a low of 11 to a maximum of above 1,000 — just once in Kodad and twice in Thungathurthy — in all the rounds. The least margin being 11 votes, and the maximum difference above 1,000 just once in Kodad and twice in Thungathurthy in all the rounds, the seesaw contest was challenging especially as the constituencies registered over 85% polling.
Thin margin
For Mr. Kishore Kumar, the comeback was in the 17th round, eight rounds from end of counting, showing his first 1000+ majority. And though he was leading the successive rounds with thin majorities, the margin was not wide.
Pressure continued on the candidates, and the eager reporters and agents, as the rounds closed in.
Ms. Padmavathi Reddy although lagging behind Mallaiah Yadav in 12 of the 19 rounds, she didn’t give up but scored over her opponent in the three of last five rounds. Tension for Thungathurthy was on hold when the 17 EVMs were brought back and opened for manual counting, and the postal ballots were yet to be counted.
Postal ballots
Both the Congress candidates scored well in postal ballots, and after they were added the final tally stood at 88359/89115 a loss with a margin of 756 votes in Kodad and 89010/90857 a loss with a margin of 1847 votes in Thungathurthy.
Meanwhile, one Rangala Venkat Reddy, a 35-year-old supporter of Ms. Padmavathi Reddy suffered a heart attack following the result. He died while being taken to the area hospital.
