Votes mismatch may upset winners' result

Hyderabad: The Election Commission has made a mess of election process in the recent Telangana state Assembly elections. Apart from missing of voters, the mismanagement of electoral process by the EC could be witnessed in the counting of votes, which might have changed the fate of several candidates.

In Asifabad, total votes polled are 1,60,214 and the sum total of votes polled for all contesting candidates, including Nota, is 1,60,790, which leads to candidates getting 576  votes more.

In this constituency, Congress candidate Atram Sakku won by a margin of 171 votes. An additional votes of 576 votes could change the result in favour of TRS candidate Kova Laxmi.

In Kodada Assembly constituency, total votes polled are 1,92,008 and the sum total of votes polled for all candidates is 1,93,888. This leaves us with an extra votes of 1,880. The margin of winning TRS candidate Bollam Mallaiah Yadav  is 756 votes. If the votes were to be annulled, it could lead to the victory of Congress candidate N. Padmavathi Reddy.

In some constituencies, mismatch was less than the margin of the winning candidate over the nearest rival. So while this is wrong, it may not result in any change of the winner.

One of the examples for such mismatch is Gajwel. In Gajwel, there was a mismatch of 821 votes. But Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had won with a margin of 58,290 votes. Higher margins like this would not lead to any change in the winning candidates’ fate.  

Apart Dharmapuri, Kodada and Asifabad, the mismatch could upset results in many places in the state.