Rural body elections: TRS bounces back in Telangana, TDP has edge in Seemandhra

According to figures available late evening, the TDP had captured 12 of the 653 ZPTC seats and 1973 of the 10,092 MPTC seats as compared to YSRC’s nine and 1,709 respectively in Seemandhra.

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) which swept the urban local bodies polls in Seemandhra yesterday, continued to enjoy an edge over its main rival YSR Congress (YSRC) in rural local bodies elections as well while the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), which had yielded ground to the Congress in the urban local bodies polls in Telangana, bounced back to put up an impressive show in the rural bodies elections on Tuesday.

It’s too early though to forecast which party would come up trumps in the rural bodies elections since counting of ballot papers to both the Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTC) and the Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (MPTC) in the two states are expected to extend well into the early hours of Wednesday or even later. Current trends, at the time of going to the press, indicate that the principal players - TDP and YSRC in Seemandhra and TRS and Congress in Telangana - would fight it out to the last to gain supremacy in the rural segments.

According to figures available late evening, the TDP had captured 12 of the 653 ZPTC seats and 1973 of the 10,092 MPTC seats as compared to YSRC’s nine and 1,709 respectively in Seemandhra. In Telangana, the TRS bagged 63 of the 443 ZPTC seats and 739 of the 6497 MPTC seats as against Congress’s 33 ZPTC seats and 866 MPTC seats.

The Congress managed just 55 MPTC seats in Seemandhra while the TDP did relatively better in Telangana accounting for four ZPTC seats and 348 MPTC seats. Others accounted for 220 in Seemandhra and 470 in Telangana. With most national television channels predicting a neck-and-neck contest between the TDP and YSRC in Seemandhra for Lok Sabha in their respective exit polls, it remains to be seen whether the TDP’s impressive showing in both the urban and rural local bodies elections would translate into an edge over the YSRC in the Parliament and State Assembly verdict which would be out on May 16.

In Telangana, most TV channels have said that the TRS enjoys a clear edge over the Congress, but with the latter putting up a tough fight in the local bodies’ elections, the May 16 verdict may well turn out to be interesting.

The counting of votes for the rural local bodies, elections for which were held on April 6, is a time-consuming affair since ballot papers were used and not Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). About 465 MPTCs and three ZPTCs have been elected unopposed, sources said.

— news@khaleejtimes.com

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