HYDERABAD: All eyes are on Huzurabad as the counting of votes in the Assembly byelection will begin at 8 am on Tuesday.
Although there are 30 candidates in the fray in the byelection held on October 30, the main fight is between the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the opposition BJP. Both the BJP and the TRS seem to be confident of victory in the bypoll although a majority of exit polls favoured the BJP.
The polling witnessed a record 86.64 per cent against 84.5 per cent in 2018 and both the parties claimed higher poll percentage to be in their favour.
While the TRS claimed it as 'positive vote' for the government's welfare and development programmes, the BJP countered it saying it was against the TRS misrule and sympathy factor in favour of its candidate Etala Rajendar.
The Huzurabad bypoll attracted national attention due to over five-month long tug of war between the TRS and the BJP. Although the TRS fielded Gellu Srinivas Yadav as its candidate, the bypoll was seen as a fight between TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and Rajender, whom the former sacked from his Cabinet in May on land grabbing charges which subsequently led to Rajendar quitting the TRS and joining the BJP in June.
The outcome of this bypoll is being watched with bated breath in political circles as it is widely believed that the poll result has the potential to change the course of Telangana politics and act as a precursor to Assembly polls scheduled for December 2023.
The bypoll outcome is expected to show its impact on major parties the TRS, the BJP and the Congress in the run up to the 2023 Assembly polls. For the TRS, the victory is expected to silence the voice of dissent if any in the party and help Chandrashekar Rao to gain more hold on the party and the government.
A victory in this bypoll will help the BJP to strike back after suffering setbacks in Nagarjunasagar Assembly bypoll, Graduate MLC elections and municipal polls between March-May this year after its stupendous performance in Dubbak Assembly bypoll and the GHMC elections towards 2020-end. It will also help the BJP project itself as the principal opposition to the TRS in Telangana replacing the Congress.
The Election Commission has made elaborate arrangements for the smooth conduct of counting at SRR College in Karimnagar. The initial trends are expected by 10 am and the final result will be out by 5 pm.
The counting of votes will begin with 753 postal ballots at 8 pm. Later, the counting of votes registered in EVMs will begin for which two halls have been set up. 14 tables have been set up with seven tables in each hall.
The counting will be held in 22 rounds with each round taking about 30 minutes. Since 30 candidates are in the fray, the counting is expected to take more time.
Out of total 2,36,873 voters in Huzurabad, 2,05,236 exercised their franchise.
