Counting of votes begins for Telangana assembly polls

Hyderabad: The wait is over for the 119 Assembly seats of Telangana that went for polls on November 30 as counting of votes begin on Sunday amid tight security.
The fate of 2,290 candidates from 109 parties including the national and regional parties will be revealed as the counting proceeds. A clear picture of the result is likely to emerge by noon.
The outcome of the Assembly elections in the four crucial States of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana will reflect into the possible political variations that will be seen in the Lok Sabha election in 2024.
The polling for the 119-member Telangana concluded on Thursday and it was the last among five states that went to the polls this month.
According to the Election Commission (EC), Telangana recorded a 70.28 per cent voter turnout in the November 30 assembly elections.
Voters exercised their franchise in 35,655 polling stations that were set up across the state. The majority mark in Telangana is 60.
Exit polls predicted that Congress is poised to form government in Telangana and that the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) would fall short of the majority after its 10-year rule in India's youngest state.
The BRS fielded candidates in all 119 seats, the Congress in 118, the BJP in 111 and the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM in nine Assembly constituencies.
Incumbent Chief Minister and the founder of BRS, K Chandrashekar Rao, is contesting from two seats: his original seat, Gajwel, and Kamareddy. In the 2018 elections, KCR secured a victory in Gajwel by over 58,000 votes.
This time, he faces BJP leader Etela Rajender in Gajwel and Congress state unit chief Revanth Reddy in Kamareddy.
Telangana minister K T Rama Rao is contesting from the Sircilla seat, which he won in 2018 by a significant margin of over 89,000 votes.
Ahead of the counting of votes for assembly elections in Telangana, Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader Dasoju Srravan expressed confidence in his party's ability to get back into power.
"It is sheer stupidity of the Congress party and DK Shivakumar to make stupid allegations that KCR is trying to be in touch with their MLAs. By saying that DK Shivakumar is portraying distrust in his MLAs. The KCR and BRS parties do not require anyone's support. We are emerging as the single largest party, and we will form the government," said Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader Dasoju Srravan.
Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar assured that all the Congress candidate are safe and nobody can break the party.
"We are hoping that the people of Telangana have decided for a change. I am in a very positive mood. We will give a government with good governance. Some of our candidates have informed us that whoever these party (BRS) people have spoken to. We have made elaborate arrangements for all our candidates. They are safe & we will see that they are protected. Not even a single MLA or candidate will break. We know their political strategy. There is no individual we have fought the election of collective leadership. We will remain on the same agend," DK Shivakumar said.
Ahead of the counting, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge appointed AICC (All India Congress Committee) observers to coordinate the meetings of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in four key states.
In Telangana, the responsibility falls upon DK Shivakumar, Deepa Das Munshi, Ajoy Kumar, K Muraleedharan, and KJ George.
In 2018, BRS (then Telangana Rashtra Samithi) won 88 of the 119 seats and had a 47.4 per cent vote share. The Congress came a distant second with 19 seats.