Hyderabad: The woes of the Telugu Desam, reeling from the Revanth Reddy’s cash for vote episode, deepened at the end of counting with the five BJP and one TD MLAs (Mr R. Krishnaiah) choosing NOTA as their second preference vote after marking their first preference to Mr Vem Narendra Reddy.
This led Returning Officer Dr S. Raja Sadaram to declare the six votes as invalid after consulting the Election Commission.
At the end of counting, Telugu Desam Legislature Party leader Mr Errabelli Dayakar Rao said, “TRS won the MLC polls in an undemocratic manner by invalidating six BJP and one TD MLA votes.”
There were 120 eligible voters (MLAs) in the elections. Two MLAs from the CPI and the CPM abstained from voting and six votes were invalid, leaving 112 valid votes.
The TRS, with its strength of 85 MLAs (TRS 66, MIM seven, defected MLAs 12) distributed 17 votes each to the five candidates and all won in the first round of counting.
Ms Lalitha got 18 first preference votes (17 Congress plus one Independent) and was also declared elected in the first round of counting.
The Telugu Desam’s Narendra Reddy got only nine votes and lost the elections for the Council.
