Telangana Rashtra Samithi candidate Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy romped home with a comfortable majority of over 10,000 votes (10,113 votes) in the byelection to the Munugode Assembly constituency.
Counting for the bypoll which began at 8 a.m. on Sunday morning progressed smoothly, but slowly on account of presence of more than three dozen independent candidates. The TRS candidate who started his account with a lead of 1,292 votes in the first round appeared conceding ground to the BJP candidate in the second and third rounds of counting when the saffron party managed leads of 841 and 415 respectively.
The situation however changed from the fourth round as the TRS managed to consolidate its position from then. After registering a majority of 714 votes in the fourth round, the TRS did not look back till the 15th and the last round. The party’s lead till the 11th round was below 5,000 and it continued in the upswing in the last four rounds crossing the 10,000 majority mark in the 14th and 15th rounds. The Congress nominee Palvai Sravanthi remained a poor third managing 23,864 votes at the end.
The State election authority, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, at one point of time drew flak from the opposition side as there were delays in releasing the round wise information pertaining to counting of votes. The BJP in particular charged the CEO Vikas Raj with acting at the behest of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s office and releasing details of rounds where the TRS secured leads.
Reacting to the charges, Mr. Vikas Raj however asserted that there was no scope for any lacunae in the counting process and it had been conducted in a transparent manner. Observers and counting agents were deployed at all the tables and the process had been monitored constantly. There was no secrecy and the information was being updated as and when it was received from the counting hall. Counting however took time as there were several contestants in the fray.
The result of the Munugode bypoll, conducted on November 3 following the resignation of sitting MLA K. Rajagopal Reddy from the seat, is of no consequence to the State’s political landscape. But, it turned interesting as three main political parties, the TRS, the Congress and the BJP took it as a prestigious issue.
