Counting of votes in keenly-watched Huzurabad bypoll in Telangana on Tuesday

Karimnagar: Counting of votes in the keenly-watched Huzurabad Assembly constituency bypoll in Telangana would be taken up on Tuesday.

Counting would begin at 8 AM at the SRR Government Degree College in Karimnagar town on Tuesday and all arrangements have been made for the exercise, district Collector RV Karnan said.

He said on Monday that 14 tables have been arranged for counting 2,05,236 votes. The counting would be conducted in 22 rounds.

He said 86.64 per cent votes were polled in the polling held on Saturday last.

Karimnagar Police Commissioner V Satyanarayana said tight security arrangements have been at the counting centre for the smooth conduct of the exercise.

The by-election has been necessitated in Huzurabad in view of the resignation of Eatala Rajender in June following his removal from the state Cabinet over allegations of land-grabbing.

Rajender, who dismissed the allegations, had quit TRS and joined BJP. He is seeking re-election on a BJP ticket.

Though as many as 30 candidates are in the fray, the main contest is among Gellu Srinivas Yadav of TRS, BJP's Eatala Rajender and Venkat Balmoori (Congress).

The bypoll is a do-or-die battle for Rajender, while it is significant for the BJP as it aims at emerging as the alternative to ruling TRS in the 2023 Legislative Assembly elections.

It is crucial for the TRS as well as it would like to demonstrate that its dominance in state politics continues unchallenged.