Top guns keep fingers crossed as they await Super Sunday

HYDERABAD: The public bravado of the impending victories of their respective candidates notwithstanding, leaders of the TRS, BJP and the Congress on Thursday nervously settled down for a two-day wait for ‘Super Sunday’ of November 6 when the votes cast by some two-lakh-and-odd voters in Munugode would be counted.

Ironically, the top three political parties believe that their future in Telangana rides on the outcome of the byelection.

The TRS and the BJP leaders throughout the day predicted their success, and at times expressed their hopes that sometimes swung high, and at times swung low that reflected the waves in which voters turned up at the 298 polling stations.

Particularly nervous was the BJP, which had to face the onslaught of 100 TRS leaders that included ministers, MLAs and MLCs. There were enough murmurs in the party circles that indicated that the election would end up being a hard run to make it to the tape.

While the parties wait for the official results and outcome on Sunday of their months-long toil that saw hundreds of their leaders staying put and make a lot of noise in an otherwise sleepy Assembly constituency, most of the exit polls predicted a win for the TRS with the BJP coming second with the Congress in the third place. Consistently coming in fourth place was the BSP, the last of the nationally recognised political parties in the fray.

One exit poll placed the TRS on the top saying the party would get anywhere between 48  and 51 per cent of the votes, while a couple of others said the TRS would get between 41  and 43 per cent. These surveys also said that the BJP would get between 31  and 36 per cent per cent of the vote, while the BSP would get anywhere three to seven per cent.

The rest of the candidates in the 47-contestant field, between them, would get between 2.5 and seven per cent, the exit polls predicted. Only one survey placed the BJP on top, followed by the TRS and the Congress.

Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj said that the day had passed off peacefully. There were some minor issues related to the voting machines that were addressed and resolved almost immediately.