- Poll will take place on March 14th for 2 seats
- Fierce campaign by all parties
- Second preferential vote will play key role this time
Hyderabad: The race is on for two MLC graduate seats in Telangana. Tough fight is witnessed between ruling party, TRS , and main rival, BJP, in the campaign for a few days. The candidates fielded are well known to voters by all means, and just few days to go for poll, the ground reality is seen as below.
Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahaboobnagar Seat
BJP announced candidate much prior to all and fielded once again sitting MLC N. Ramchander Rao as its candidate. Ruling party, TRS, for unknown reasons, waited for a long time and in last minute gave ticket to S. Vani Devi, daughter of former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. Calculations by TRS might be just to split the Brahmin community vote as per pollsters.
Also Read : Keen contest for the second graduates’ seat
Independent giving good fight
The tough fight for both these parties will be offered by independent candidate Prof. Nageswar who won twice earlier. We are seeing a surprise campaign in this election with Congress and TRS requesting voters to vote their first preference to Nageswar and second vote to their party. This was truly shocking which was witnessed in Ranga Reddy district last weekend. This is a clear sign that BJP’s candidate Ramchander Rao is in first place and competition is from none other than Independent candidate Nageswar rather than the TRS or the Congress. Here as per opinion poll, BJP is leading in the race.
Khammam-Warangal- Nalgonda Seat
The race became tough here as the days progressed in campaign. Everyone thought it would be a cake walk for TRS candidate P. Rajeswara Reddy, sitting MLC, but the show has been getting tough as the day of polling is nearing. He is facing tough competition from Prof Kodandaram. The split in votes may be like this, with Warangal supporting BJP, Khammam TRS, Nalgonda once again can expect split between BJP and TRS. Now the leaders of TRS are in a tense situation since they would face embarrassment if they fail in this seat. Ministers Harish Rao, K.Taraka Rama Rao, Gangula Kamalakar Rao and Dayakar Rao are sweating it out to make their candidates win in both seats. 5.2 lakh graduate voters are there in this seat and if one has to win, he or she should get 2.6 lakh votes.
Also Read : BJP, TRS to fight it out with Nageswar waiting in the wing
Second preferential vote will play key role
A candidate needs to get a minimum of 50 per cent of total valid votes and an extra vote to be declared winner. The second preferential vote comes into picture, if this criterion is not met in first preferential vote. Keeping this in view all parties have been appealing to the voters to pick them as second preferential candidate if they gave their first one to some other. This battle is keen particularly for TRS and BJP to be in the race for next assembly elections.
Also Read : Its Pawan Vs Sharmila In Telangana
