The Telangana Rashtra Samithi has expanded its leadership in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections on early trends, but the BJP appears to be consolidating its presence in the region as the vote count progresses on Friday.
Following the early trends in the first round of vote counting, the TRS has established clear leads in 57 divisions, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) engaged in a close fight with the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen from all over India. with tracks in 25 divisions vs. leaders in 30 divisions obtained by AIMIM candidates. Congress is in last position with leaders in two divisions.
Although not officially declared yet, AIMIM candidate Majid Hussain from the Mehdipatnam division recorded the first victory in the elections and TRS candidate Raj Kumar Patel won from Yousufguda’s division.
The scrutiny process began at 8 am with the scrutiny of 1,926 postal ballots in various divisions. In postal ballots, the BJP established leaders in 84 divisions, followed by TRS in 29 divisions, AIMIM in 17, and Congress in two divisions.
Also read: GHMC 2020 election result: will repeat the victory of Dubbak in the polls, leader of the BJP
Meanwhile, the Telangana state high court suspended a nightly circular issued by the state electoral commission that allowed any pen marking other than the swastika seal on the ballot paper as a valid vote during the count.
The SEC circular issued Thursday night said that even an ink mark on the ballot, rather than a swastika, can be considered a valid vote, treating it as a mistake by the election official and not a voter. The SEC clarified that the marking of the vote even with a pen showed the intention to vote for a particular candidate.
Congress and the BJP asked how the circular could be issued without consulting all parties. The BJP filed a house motion in state superior court early in the morning.
After hearing from both parties, the high court issued a ruling suspending the circular and stating that only those ballots with the swastika mark could be considered valid for scrutiny.
Also read: GHMC 2020 Election Results: AIMIM Candidates Win in Mehdipatnam and Dabeerpura Divisions
The high court said that all those votes with a mark other than the swastika must be counted separately. If their number is greater than the margin of victory assured by a candidate, then the result will be retained and if the margin of victory of a candidate is greater than the votes marked without a swastika, then the result could be declared.
He ordered the SEC to immediately transmit the judgment to all counting centers and asked it to present an accountant with all the details before Monday.
The commission said it would file a petition for review in the higher court claiming that the courts cannot interfere in the decisions of the electoral commission.
Only 46.55% exercised their franchise using the ballot method in GHMC elections, rather than electronic voting machines, for the first time in 18 years. The total number of eligible voters is 74.67 lakh.
“It means that about 34.50 lakh of votes have to be counted physically. This is the reason for the delay in the vote count. First, the ballots had to be done in packages of 100 votes each and then the recount had to be done, “said an SEC official familiar with the development.
Up to 30 counting centers have been established within the GHMC boundaries and 14 tables have been set up in each counting room. In total, 8,152 people are involved in the counting exercise and 31 observers are monitoring the procedures.
.
