PV Narasimha Rao's daughter S Vani Devi defeats BJP rival in Telangana MLC polls on TRS ticket

Former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao’s daughter S Vani Devi, who was the ruling TRS candidate, on Saturday won the election to Telangana Legislative Council from the Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad Graduates’ constituency. Vani Devi defeated her nearest BJP rival and sitting MLC N Ramachander Rao. She received the certificate of election from the Returning Officer on Saturday night, official sources said. Elections were held to the Council from Mahabubnagar-Ranagreddy-Hyderabad and Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda Graduates’ constituencies on 14 March. In the Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda seat, TRS nominee and sitting MLC Palla Rajeshwar Reddy continued his lead as the protracted process of counting of votes was still underway. Counting of votes began on Wednesday and it continued till Saturday as jumbo-sized ballot papers were used in the poll in view of the large number of candidates and also because the voters exercised their franchise in a preferential method. The total number of voters in the two constituencies is over 10 lakh. As many as 93 candidates were in the fray from the Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad constituency, while 71 nominees contested from the Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda constituency. While the Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad seat witnessed 67.26 percent of polling, the voter turnout was 76.41 percent in the Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda constituency. Having suffered setbacks in the Dubbak assembly onstituency bypoll and Hyderabad civic polls late last year, the TRS made a determined bid to win the two seats, while the BJP sought to continue the momentum following its impressive performance in the Hyderabad civic polls. The Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad seat witnessed a close contest as G Chinna Reddy of Congress, TDP’s Telangana unit president L Ramana and former MLC K Nageshwar, a journalism professor and prominent analyst, were also in the fray.