Congress, TD eye 3 seats, TRS sure of 12

The ruling Congress and the opposition Telugu Desam are confident of snatching away at least three seats — Nizamabad Urban, Sirpur and Mancherial — from the Telangana Rashtra Samiti-BJP alliance in the by-elections to the 12 Assembly constituencies held on Tuesday.

However, the TRS is sure of winning all the seats. “The TRS will win all seats where bypolls were held,” Mr T. Harish Rao said after launching the celebrations in Siddipet in the evening.

In Nizamabad Urban segment, the Congress candidate, the PCC chief, Mr D. Srinivas, who pumped in all “resources” at his command, appeared to be the frontrunner over his main BJP rival, Mr Y. Laxminarayana. Last time, when the poll percentages in the rest of the segments touched 70 per cent, Nizamabad recorded only 39.5 per cent. The percentage of minorities who voted was just 17. But this time, the poll percentage jumped to 50 and around 32 per cent of minorities went to vote. This may turn things in favour of Mr Srinivas.

In Sirpur seat of Adilabad too, the Congress expects its candidate, Mr A. Indrakaran Reddy, to have good chances of victory. Meanwhile, the TD is confident that its candidate, Mr G. Hanumantha Rao, will scrape through with a slender margin over his TRS rival, Mr Gaddam Aravinda Reddy in Mancherial segment of Adilabad district.

Trends strongly favour the TRS-BJP combine in all the five seats of Karimnagar district, Yellareddy in Nizamabad and Siddipet of Medak district. There was brisk polling in other seats like Warangal West and Chennur where the TRS and Congress candidates were locked in a keen contest.