Telangana braces for election counting on Dec 3: BRS, Congress, BJP confident of victory

Counting for the much-anticipated Telangana Assembly election will begin at 8 am on December 3, even as the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Congress express confidence that they will get the required numbers to form the government.

The Election Commission would conduct the counting process in 49 counting centres across the State. 

The Congress Party high command is reportedly deputing senior leaders such as P Chidambaram, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar to Hyderabad in anticipation of the party winning a majority of the seats in the 119-seat House.

Most exit polls indicated that the party would secure the majority. Unfazed, BRS President and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao reportedly told his colleagues in the Cabinet and other senior leaders that the party would retain power.

The main political parties of BRS, Congress and BJP are in touch with their respective candidates in the backdrop of some exit polls predicting a hung house.

BRS Working President K T Rama Rao also dismissed the exit polls, saying they had predicted his party’s defeat in the 2018 elections. “We are going to form the government by winning 70 seats,” he said.

Polling percentage

Telangana Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj said that as many as 2.32 crore voters had cast their votes on the polling day on November 30. The State reported a polling percentage of 71.34 per cent against 73.37 per cent.

Munugode constituency reported the highest polling percentage of 91.89 p.c., while Yakutpura (Hyderabad) registered the lowest voting percentage of 39.40 p.c.