Warangal Bypoll Peaceful, Over 65% Voting

The electoral fortunes of the contestants in the Warangal Lok Sabha by-election are now sealed in the EVMs, as polling came to an end at 5 pm today.

As many as 23 candidates are in the fray, but the main fight appears to be between the ruling TRS, the Congress and the BJP candidates. The BJP candidate is supported by the TDP.

Polling went off peacefully. At the end of the polling, nearly 65% of the voters had exercised their franchise, in 1,778 polling stations spread across the seven Assembly segments of the Lok Sabha constituency.

The by-election, caused by the resignation of Kadiam Srihari, who had been inducted as Deputy Chief Minister into the KCR government, is considered as a referendum on the functioning of the TRS government headed by K Chandrashekar Rao. A defeat, or even a victory with lesser majority than in the 2014 Lok Sabha general elections, of the TRS candidate will be a set-back to the ruling party, and will give ammunition for the Opposition parties to raise a tirade against KCR contending that he had failed to deliver during his 16 months of regime.

In case the ruling party's candidate gets a greater majority, it will be shock to the Opposition parties, whose leaders are flaying the State government for its "failures on all fronts".

In the 2014 elections, Kadiam Srihari secured a massive majority of more than three lakh votes. He polled 56.33% of the votes, while the Congress nominee got just 22.41%, and the BJP 15.93%.

The NOTA (None Of The Above candidates) option was provided in the election this time. Polling started a little late in some of the polling stations, as the EVMs failed to work due to technical snags. For the first time, the photographs of the contestants were affixed on the EVMs.

Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari, TDP leader Errabelli Dayakar Rao, TRS candidate Dayakar, Congress Member of the Rajya Sabha Rapolu Ananda Bhaskar and former Chief Whip Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy were among those who exercised their franchise.

Counting in the Warangal Lok Sabha by-election will be held on November 24. The counting will start at 8 am on the day, and the final result is expected by around 4 pm.