All the four candidates of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the lone candidate of the ruling party’s ally All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) were elected as the Members of Legislative Council (MLC) under the MLAs quota with the Congress and the TTDP boycotting the elections.
The four TRS MLC candidates who include Home Minister Mohd. Mahmood Ali, Satyavathi Rathod, Yegge Mallesham and Seri Subhash Reddy secured 20 votes each and were declared winners along with AIMIM candidate Mirza Riyaz ul Hasan Effendi, who secured 19 votes.
Earlier in the day, all the Congress and TTDP MLAs abstained from voting after the parties issued a Whip to all of them not to participate in the polls. Lone BJP MLA, Raja Singh, too stayed away from voting. However, the TRS MLAs and AIMIM MLAs cast their votes coming in batches.
The TRS MLAs arrived at the Assembly in buses from the Telangana Bhavan where they had earlier participated in a mock polling with the party allocating each MLA to a certain candidate. Each Minister was asked to coordinate with the MLAs who were allotted the MLC contestant to vote for. The polling began around 9 a.m.
TRS working president K.T. Rama Rao came along with a group of MLAs showing their strength and oozing confidence that they would win all the seats. The party didn’t want to take any chance despite the Congress boycotting and asked all the MLAs to participate and vote according to their plan.
