Huzurabad bypoll: BJP candidate Eatala Rajender leads in second round of voting
The polling for the Huzurabad seat was quite high — a record 86.6 per cent of the 2.75 lakh voters had exercised their franchise.
Published: 02nd November 2021 10:54 AM | Last Updated: 02nd November 2021 11:15 AM | A+A A-
Prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC have been imposed within 200 metre radius of the counting centres. (Photo | Express)
HYDERABAD: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Eatela Rajender leads by a margin of 192 votes in the second round of counting in Huzurabad bypolls. With this, the total lead for BJP is at 358. Rajender polled 9,461 votes, while TRS' G Srinivas Yadav polled 9103 votes and Congress candidate Venkat Narsing Rao polled 339 votes.
The counting of votes for Huzurabad Assembly byelections began at 8.00 am on Tuesday amid tight security. All necessary arrangements have been made by the Election Commission of India for the counting.
There will be 22 rounds of counting and which will continue till the afternoon. A total of 2,05,236 votes have been polled so far.
A neck-and-neck battle is predicted between BJP and TRS after the latter named its student wing leader Srinivas Yadav as its candidate against the former minister and four-time MLA Rajender.
A three-layer security arrangement is in place at the counting centre. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC have been imposed within 200 metre radius of the counting centres.
Though it was initially expected to be a three-cornered contest, the Congress clearly lagged behind BJP and TRS due to delay in announcing the candidate and launching the campaign. The Congress party has nominated 29-year-old political novice B Venkat Narsing Rao, chief of the state's NSUI unit, as its candidate.
The constituency saw a long and bitter campaign with both TRS and BJP accusing each other of using money, liquor and other gifts to lure voters. TRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his son and TRS working president KT Rama Rao stayed away from the campaigning.
In 2018, Rajender had retained Huzurabad, defeating his nearest rival Kaushik Reddy of Congress by over 43,000 votes. The TRS candidate had polled 1,04,840 while Congress candidate secured 61,121 votes. BJP candidate P Raghu polled only 1,683 votes, which was less than NOTA votes (2,867). Kaushik Reddy recently quit Congress and joined TRS.
