The ruling TRS candidates were leading in both the graduates’ MLC seats at the end of the second round of counting on Thursday.
While TRS candidate Palla Rajeshwar Reddy was leading by 7,871 in the Nalgonda-Warangal-Khammam graduates constituency, Surabhi Vani Devi of the ruling party established an early lead of over 1,000 votes in the Hyderabad-Ranga Reddy-Mahabubnagar graduates constituency over her nearest BJP rival N Ramchander Rao.
The cumbersome process of bundling the
‘jumbo’ ballots in the two constituencies took an entire day on Wednesday and counting began late in the evening.
Rajeshwar Reddy polled 16,130 votes in the first round of counting of votes and 15,857 votes in the second round.
The surprise element was independent candidate Teenmar Mallanna who polled 12,046 and 12,070 votes in the first and second rounds of counting respectively to take the second position in the Nalgonda-Warangal-Khammam constituency.