The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Close race for SCB wards

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Tuesday, May 20, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Close race for SCB wards

Winners in three of the seven wards scrape through

— Photos: Mohd. Yousuf

On cloud nine: (Left) People celebrating the victory of their favourite candidates for Secunderabad Cantonment Board on Monday. (Right) J. Vidyavati being greeting after she was declared elected from Ward No. 1.

HYDERABAD: A close race is being fought for the eight civilian wards of Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB), even as the manual counting of the ballots continued till late on Monday night.

In three of the seven contests that were announced by Monday midnight, winners got through with small margins. Though the polls are not based on party basis, contestants owning allegiance to the Congress bagged four wards, while the TDP bagged two. An independent candidate won ward seven.

Former SCB Vice-President J. Pratap lived up to his reputation by winning for the fourth time, this time from a new territory of ward three.

It was a double delight for him with his wife, J. Vidyavati, winning pretty handsomely from his traditional bastion of ward one. She defeated her nearest rival, R. Mamata, by a margin of 1,712 votes.

The seat was earlier held by her husband for three consecutive terms and has been reserved for women now.

Recount

Mr. Prabhakar, owing allegiance to TRS, won the seat last time. Mr. Pratap polled 3,676 votes, while Mr. Prabhakar polled 3,447.

There was some tension and a mild clash later at Balamrai when TRS supporters tried to obstruct the victory procession and also allegedly resorted to stone pelting on some houses. Another veteran leader, P. Venkat Rao, too won for the fourth successive time winning ward four by a narrow margin of 106 votes.

He defeated his nearest rival, D.B. Devender, polling 1,622 votes.

Sweet revenge

It was sweet revenge for Congress’ S. Keshava Reddy in ward two as he defeated his nearest rival, B. Laxman, of BJP by just 176 votes. Last time, it was the other way round. This time, Mr. Reddy polled 2,882 and Mr. Laxman 2,706. In ward five, M. Anuradha of TDP defeated her nearest rival Shyamala Vijaylaksmi, by polling 3527 votes while the latter picked up 1688 votes. In ward six, Bhanuka Narmada of Congress emerged victorious by polling 3202 votes over her nearest rival K. Vidyavati, who polled 2197 votes.

In ward seven, independent candidate P. Shyam Kumar emerged victorious by polling 5365 votes while his nearest rival K. B. Sankar Rao managed to bag just 1750 votes.

The counting of ward eight continued till the early hours of Tuesday.

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