Hyderabad, March 24: The counting of votes for Legislative Council from Chittoor LAC took place amid high drama as Desai Thippa Reddy, the final winner, established only a one-vote majority in the first round in which he secured 408 votes compared to 407 of his nearest rival B. Naresh Kumar Reddy of the Congress.
The tally remained same even after the recounting ordered by the returning officer as normally done when the difference is only one vote in a round, according to Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwar Lal.
However, the situation changed completely in the second round when Mr. Thippa Reddy secured 48 second preference votes found in the ballot papers of Mr. Naresh Kumar Reddy.
As a result, the total votes polled by Mr. Thippa Reddy, who was fielded by the Jagan group, were finally put at 456.
Mr. Bhanwar Lal said the second preference votes were transferred to Mr. Thippa Reddy as he could not get simple majority out of the total 899 votes polled, that is 451.
In the final tally, the TDP, the Congress and Independents fielded by the Jagan group won three seats each in the biennial elections to the Council from the LACs in eight districts.
The 10 {+t} {+h} seat from the Hyderabad LAC is bagged by S. Aminul Hasan Jafri of MIM who was elected unopposed.
With this, polls for 26 Council seats, six from graduates’ and teachers’ constituencies and 10 each from LACs and the Assembly, came to a close.
The Governor will nominate four members shortly to the Upper House besides filling the vacancy caused by the death of K. Rajyalakshmi.
–Agencies