TRS candidate Vani Devi pulled out of MLC election

After 90 hours of counting, TRS candidate S. Vani Devi was declared the winner of the Mahbubnagar-Ranga-Hyderabadi graduation level elections for the Telangana Legislative Council.

Ms. Vani Devi obtained the winning certificate from Returning Officer Priyanka Ala at 10 pm on Saturday after approval from the Election Commission.

According to the information shared by the GHMC – the election authority for the election – Msvani Devi secured a total of 1,89,339 votes against 1,47,700 ballots, after which all the candidates were left out.

Before the elimination round, 91 out of a total of 93 candidates were nominated by Ms. Veeni Devi and BJP candidate N. Except Ramachandra Rao, who was fielded in the election, he remained in the fray. In the process of elimination, contestants with the lowest first-vote votes were eliminated from the race, and their second-preference votes were handed over to the respective candidates.

Congress candidate Chinna Reddy and Independent candidate K. Nageshwar was also eliminated from the fourth and third position as the elimination round progressed.

In the final round, Ms. Vani Devi garnered 11,703 votes over her nearest rival. It got a total of 1,49,269 votes, including the first and second preference ballots, while Mr. Ramchander Rao finished second with 1,37,566.

To win, any candidate had to secure at least one vote on more than 50% of the total valid ballots cast. Given the number of ballots valid at 3,37,039, the winner’s mark was set at 1,68,520 votes.

During Mr. Ramachandra Rao’s elimination round, the second preference vote for Ms. Devi crossed 40,000, which made her eligible for a win.

Officials said that the ‘extended paper’ is a technical term to describe the total ballots in which no second preference was voted, and also overtook second preference votes, which the candidate Mr. Ramchander Rao achieved. .

The counting process started at 7 am on 17 March at the Saruranagar Indoor Stadium and continued without a break for almost four days. A GHMC statement stated that the process continued for 90 hours, a record in itself, not only in Telangana, but also keeping in mind the United States elections.

A total of 50 senior officials participated in the counting process, along with District Election Officer and GHMC Commissioner DS Lokesh Kumar and Returning Officer and Additional Commissioner Priyanka Ala. 9,600 counting staff worked in three shifts, with 800 people working each shift.