There was a strange mix of winners and losers in the results of election to graduates constituencies of Legislative Council.
Both the winners from TRS -- S. Vani Devi and Palla Rajeswara Reddy -- are educationalists running institutions in the city. Their rivals were two professors K. Nageswar and M. Kodandaram respectively. Incidentally, both of them stood third in the race.
While Prof. Nageswar had been an MLC earlier, this was the first electoral battle for Prof. Kodandaram.
The former polled 53,000 first preference votes and Prof. Kodandaram 70,000 votes.
Power of social
media to the fore
There is a lesson from the results of the elections to Legislative Council. It is about the power of social media in tilting the fortunes of candidates in any election.
In the instant case, Teenmaar Mallanna has given a new direction to efforts of candidates to reach out to masses when it came to seeking votes.
As a person who runs a Youtube channel, Mallanna, whose real name is Chintapandu Naveen Kumar, attracted viewers with his analysis of newspaper reports and debates on his channel every day.
It paid off because as an independent candidate, he polled over one lakh first preference votes and nearly upset the apple cart of the ruling TRS.
His was a silent revolution using a channel and a padayatra by himself to good effect. He undertook a walkathon over 1,600 kms in the undivided Warangal district in two phases where he received good response from public.
KCR’s gamble
stumps opposition
A few days before the nomination of MLC candidates the TRS leaders were unsure of what was coming from the Chief Minister, K. Chandrashekhar Rao on the candidate for Hyderabad-Ranga Reddy-Mahabubnagar MLC graduate constituency, and many believed it was a lost cause already.
Not even senior leaders and Ministers were aware of the master stroke that the Chief Minister was about to play with the selection of S. Vani Devi, daughter of late PV Narasimha Rao. Some leaders were bit apprehensive of her candidature as she was new to politics and her opponents were strong contenders.
But her clean image gave some respect for the political battle and PV’s legacy sharpened her chances.
And the final result proved that CM’s political gamble stumped the opposition. Its all smiles in the TRS now.
High rate of invalid votes
Confirming worst fears, there was a high rate of invalid votes in the elections to graduates constituencies.
There were nearly 48,000 invalid votes which impacted the final outcome itself!
In the run up to elections, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar, who campaigned for BJP candidates, cautioned the electors not to let even a single vote go waste as they were all well-educated and aware of the voting system. The Election Commission and candidates of major political parties also appealed to voters to follow procedures in registering their preference.
But, all this went for a toss.
“Several voters who turned up to cast their vote were practically unaware of the voting system and were asking the polling officers on how to register their preference of vote in the large ballot paper.
We knew then itself that the number of invalid votes would be high this time too,” a polling officer said.
(N. Rahul, R. Ravikanth Reddy & B. Chandrashekhar)
