The counting of votes for the Telangana byelections for the Dubbaka seat began sharp at 8 AM at the Indore Engineering College in Siddipet, with postal ballots counted first and then EVM votes at 8:30 AM. The ruling TRS considers the Dubbaka seat as a prestige battle against the BJP which was quite evident from the intense campaign led by both the parties for the last three months. It was MLA Ramalinga Reddy’s death which necessitated the bypoll in the assembly constituency.
Dubbaka assumes significance as it shares borders with Gajwel which is Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao’s constituency. Sircilla the constituency of IT & MAUD KT Rama Rao, son of KCR is to the north, and Siddipet which is a bastion of T Harish Rao, CM’s nephew is to the east.
Senior BJP leader Ram Madhav took to Twitter saying,” An interesting fight in Telangana between BJP n TRS in Dubbaka Assembly by-poll. BJP is currently leading. This could be a surprise victory for BJP.” The latest trends also indicate BJP candidate M Raghunandan Rao in the lead over TRS’ Solipeta Sujatha, who is the widow of late Ramalinga Reddy. Around 23 candidates are in the fray for the bypoll.
