Undivided AP gears up for last counting of votes

The stage is set for the counting of votes for 42 Lok Sabha and 294 Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, which will be formally divided into Telangana and residual state of Andhra Pradesh (popularly known as Seemandhra) on June 2.

While the results of the Malkajgiri Lok Sabha segment will be out after 45 rounds of counting, Anakapalli will see the lowest of 18 rounds. In the Assembly segments, Kukatpally will also have 45 rounds, with the Charminar Assembly segment witnessing 18 rounds of counting.

In all, 25,000 personnel will participate in this massive vote-counting exercise at 168 counting centres in 78 localities across Telangana and Seemandhra on Friday. As many as 189 observers and two micro-observers per hall in 437 halls will keep a watchful eye on proceedings.

Meanwhile, all main political parties seem optimistic about the results. TRS spokesperson Etela Rajendra said his party would easily get 70 to 80 out of 119 seats in Telangana.  KCR’s nephew and Siddipet Assembly candidate T Harish Rao said that the TRS would form the first-ever government in Telangana by winning majority seats.

On the other hand, senior YSR Congress leader M V Mysura Reddy said his party would get between 110 and 125 Assembly seats out of the 175 Assembly seats in Seemandhra, thus going on to form government. He reasoned that the difference in votes between the YSR Congress and the TDP was 4 per cent in the municipal elections, which then tapered down to 2.9 per cent in the Parishat elections. “There will be significant narrowing of the difference in Lok Sabha and Assembly elections,” the leader added. He hopes the YSRC wins over 20 Lok Sabha seats.