The Secunderabad MLA, T. Padma Rao (second from left), and the TRS candidate, T. Mohanchary (with file in hand), wait to cast vote for the byelection at Islamia School in Secunderabad on Thursday. Photo: P. V. Sivakumar
HYDERABAD, NOV. 18. Moderate voter turnout marked the bypoll to the Hissamgunj Monda ward of the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad here on Thursday. The byelection was necessitated by election of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) corporator, T. Padma Rao, as Secunderabad legislator.
According to Syed Khurshid Ali, polling officer for the by-poll, the poll percentage was a mere 20 per cent at 11 a.m., but rose gradually to about 37 per cent by 3 p.m. and 45.27 per cent by 5 p.m. In all, 7,240 votes were polled off the total voter population of 15,991.
Significance
The bypoll assumes significance in the backdrop of strained relations between the TRS and the Congress finding an echo in this predominantly business ward of the city. Both parties, which contested the last Assembly elections together, fielded their own candidates. The main battle in the four-pronged contest is said to be between TRS's K. Mohana Chary, a local goldsmith, and Congress' B. Muthyalu. Bharatiya Janata Party's Bhawar Lal Varma and an independent candidate, Giridhar, are also in the fray.
"This ward has given me my political birth and shaped my political fortunes. I have a reputation to live up to in the area. How can the Congress insist that my party withdraws from the fray," asked Padma Rao, who won as an independent from the ward in 1996 in the face of a Telugu Desam wave. He won the ward for a second time in 2002 on the TRS banner and exuded confidence that victory would be theirs on this occasion too.
Results tomorrow
The Additional Commissioner and Additional District Election Officer, Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad, T. Muralidhar, said the polling went off peacefully and there was no need for a re-poll. The results would be declared on November 20.
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