Nalgonda: Congress candidate Teenmar Mallanna secured a majority of 18,565 votes in the counting of first preference votes in the Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda graduates MLC elections against his nearest rival A. Rakesh Reddy.
The counting of the first priority of votes, across four rounds, saw Mallanna securing 1,22,813 votes while Rakesh Reddy polled 1,04,248 votes. Mallanna bagged 39 per cent of the votes while Rakesh Reddy secured 33 per cent.
Meanwhile, BJP candidate Gujja Premender Reddy secured 43,313 votes, while 29,697 votes went in favour of an independent candidate and the Congress rebel bagged 2,057 votes.
In all, 26,000 votes were declared invalid due to various reasons.
As no candidate got more than 50 per cent of the first preference votes, returning officer Dasari Harichandana decided on counting second priority votes.
She said that the outcome of the election would be made known after counting of the second preference votes.
