The Hindu : Front Page : Legislative Council poll intriguingly poised

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 08, 2007
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

Legislative Council poll intriguingly poised

Special Correspondent

Congress, TDP put up one extra candidate each

HYDERABAD: Thirtytwo candidates filed their nominations, one more than the actual strength of parties, on Wednesday, leaving the elections to the Legislative Council from the MLAs quota intriguingly poised.

With the Congress and Telugu Desam fielding one extra candidate each and Kasani Gyaneshwar throwing his hat into the ring as independent with the support of TRS rebel MLAs and a BJP legislator, accusations of horse- trading are flying thick and fast.

As the two major players are keen on ensuring the victory of all their candidates, their strategists are busy working out fractions as the system of preferential voting will be implemented. Suddenly, the second preference votes have become important with both these parties eyeing them, having allotted the first preference ones. After obtaining the support of ten MLAs, Mr. Gyaneshwar is believed to be in touch with four or five more legislators so as not to leave anything to chance. Congress and TDP, which had kept the names of their additional candidates under wraps till the last moment, declared them on Wednesday.

While Congress plumped for K. Lakshmi Durgesh of East Godavari as its 20th candidate, the TDP named P. Yadagiri as its fifth.

Both main parties exuded confidence about the victory of these two candidates. TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu said the party's fifth candidate would romp home. APCC president K. Keshava Rao suggested that the TDP withdraw its additional candidate honourably rather than allow him to face an ignominious defeat. They made it a prestige issue and it has to be seen who will return home red-faced.

Close contest

Officially, each candidate requires 9.22 votes to win the elections but going by their strength in the House, there is a possibility of returning only 31candidates.

For a comfortable win, normally parties need to allot ten votes each. But with the contest turning out to be a close call, parties have brought it down to nine and are devoting energies to get the fraction of the vote to bridge the gap.

The Congress candidates who filed their nominations are Palvai Govardhan Reddy, Singam Basavapunnaiah, M. Manik Rao, Paladugu Venkata Rao, S. Indrasain Reddy, Kanumuri Bapiraju, Mohammed Jani, K. R. Amos and M. Laxmi Devi.

Other Congress candidates were Bharathi Naik Dharavath, P. Sudhakar Reddy, K. Yadav Reddy, Rajalingam Goud, P. Padmavathi, Md. Sultan Ahmed, Rudraraju Padmaraju. R. Gopinath, B. Chengalrayudu, G. Tippe Swamy and Kandula Lakshmi Durgesh.

TDP fielded Sidda Raghava Rao, B. Narayana Rao, Masala Padmaja, Ibrahim Bin Abdullah Masqathi and P. Yadagiri. H. A. Rahman and M. Sudarshan Rao filed their papers on TRS tickets. For CPI, it was Puvvada Nageswara Rao and Jalli Wilson. The CPI (M) chose Ch. Seetharamulu and the MIM Altaf Rizvi. Mr. Gyaneshwar filed his papers as Independent.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page