After a nerve-racking 90 hours of counting, TRS candidate S.Vani Devi has been declared winner of the Mahabubnagar-RangaReddy-Hyderabad Graduates’ Constituency elections for the Telangana Legislative Council.
Ms. Vani Devi received her certificate of winning from Returning Officer Priyanka Ala at 10 p.m. on Saturday, after approval from the Election Commission.
As per the information shared by the GHMC — the election authority for the polls — Ms.Vani Devi secured a total of 1,89,339 votes as against 1,47,700 exhausted ballot papers, after all the candidates except her had been eliminated.
Prior to that during the elimination rounds, 91 out of the total 93 candidates had been taken off the contest except Ms.Vani Devi and BJP candidate N. Ramachander Rao who remained in the fray. In the process of elimination, contestants with the lowest polled first preference votes were removed from the race, and their second preference votes were apportioned to the respective candidates.
Congress candidate G. Chinna Reddy and Independent candidate K. Nageshwar too, were eliminated from the fourth and third positions as the elimination rounds progressed.
In the final round, Ms. Vani Devi secured a majority of 11,703 votes over her nearest rival. Inclusive of the first and second preference ballots, she got a total of 1,49,269 votes, while Mr. Ramchander Rao trailed with 1,37,566.
In order to win, any candidate had to secure at least one vote over and above the 50% mark of the total valid ballots polled. Considering the number of valid ballots at 3,37,039, the winner’s mark was fixed at 1,68,520 votes.
During the elimination round of Mr. Ramchander Rao, the second preference votes polled for Ms.Vani Devi crossed 40,000, which made her eligible for a win.
‘Exhausted papers’ is the technical term to describe the total ballots where no second preference vote was given, and also the second preference votes garnered by the trailing candidate Mr. Ramchander Rao, which became invalid after his elimination, officials explained.
The counting process began on March 17 at 7 a.m. at the Saroornagar Indoor Stadium, and continued without a break for almost four days. A statement from GHMC informed that the process continued for close to 90 hours, which is a record in itself, not only in Telangana but even taking into account the elections during joint state.
A total of 50 senior officials, along with District Election Officer and GHMC Commissioner D.S. Lokesh Kumar and Returning Officer and Additional Commissioner Priyanka Ala participated in the counting process. 9,600 counting staff worked in three shifts, with 800 persons working in each shift.