HYDERABAD: The ruling TRS in Telangana appears to be heading to wrest Huzurnagar Assembly seat from the Congress party as its candidate established a huge lead.
S. Saidi Reddy of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) was leading by over 18,000 against his nearest rival Padmavathi Reddy of Congress at the end of 10th round of counting on Thursday.
Election Commission officials said there will be a total of 22 rounds of counting. They have arranged 14 tables for the counting process, which is likely to be completed by 1 p.m.
The constituency, with over 2.36 lakh voters, had recorded 84.75 per cent polling in the by-election held on October 21.
A total of 28 candidates were in the fray in the by-poll, necessitated by the resignation of state Congress chief Uttam Kumar Reddy following his election to Lok Sabha from Nalgonda constituency in the recent polls.
The Congress party fielded Uttam Kumar Reddy”s wife Padmavathi Reddy. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) also fielded their candidates in the first by-election since TRS retained power in December 2018.
In 2018, Uttam Kumar Reddy had retained Huzurnagar seat by defeating Saidi Reddy of TRS with a margin of 7,466 votes.