In the bitterly-fought Hyderabad civic body polls, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has emerged as the single-largest party winning 55 seats.
The BJP which has made significant electoral inroads, winning 48 seats, finished as runner-up. The results can be seen as a warning signalled for the regional players in the upcoming Telangana Assembly elections.
Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM party won 44 seats, performing well in its traditional bastion of the old city of Hyderabad.
For Congress it was another big disappointment as the party managed to win just two wards in the 150-ward Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.
Despite emerged as the single-largest party, TRS saw a significant decline from its 2016 GHMC poll performance when it won 99 seats.
After the results were declared, minister KT Rama Rao said, 'I thank people of Hyderabad who chose TRS as the single largest party to represent them in Council. Result is certainly not what we expected, we're short of 20-25 seats. We lost about 10-12 divisions with extremely narrow margin.'
The BJP was the biggest winner which improved its standing in the Hyderabad civic body polls from just 4 seats to 48 seats.
The results have been declared for 149 out of 150 divisions in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.
Counting of votes has been halted at Neredmet division as ballot papers with distinguish markers instead of 'arrow cross-mark rubber stamp' were found in majority, as per the Indian Express.
Counting of votes cast in all 150 divisions began at 8 am on Friday at 30 places in the city with the Telangana State Election Commission deploying over 8,000 personnel.
Police made elaborate security arrangements in the city in view of the counting of votes for the civic polls.
Though the run-up to the polls saw a high-pitched campaign by all political parties, the turnout of the voters on December 1 was an unimpressive 46.55 per cent.
Out of the total 74.67 lakh voters, only 34.50 lakh cast their votes in 149 divisions on Tuesday. There were 1,925 postal ballots.
Polling in one division was stopped due to discrepancy in ballot paper and re-poll was held on Thursday.