The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) prolonged its lead over the Bharatiya Janata Get together and seems to be heading for a win because the counting of votes in Munugode Meeting by-election entered the ultimate section.

In a neck and neck race, TRS candidate Ok. Prabhakar Reddy was main his nearest rival Ok. Rajagopal Reddy by a margin of seven,440 votes on the finish of the twelfth spherical.

With three extra rounds to go, the ruling get together seems to be assured of wresting the seat from Congress within the essential by-election, seen by many as a semifinal forward of subsequent 12 months’s Meeting polls.

On the finish of twelfth spherical, TRS had polled 82,005 votes whereas BJP secured 74,198 votes. The Congress was at a distant third place with 19,415 votes.

The TRS candidate took a lead within the first spherical by over 1,000 votes however within the second and third rounds, the BJP took the result in make the competition a good one. Nevertheless, the TRS maintained the lead since fourth spherical and step by step elevated the lead.

The counting of votes started at 8 a.m. Sunday amid tight safety. The ballot officers first took up counting of postal ballots.

A voter turnout of 93.13 per cent was recorded within the bitterly-contested bypoll on Thursday. This surpassed 91.31 per cent polling recorded within the constituency in 2018 polls.

Out of a complete 2,41,805 voters, 2,25,192 voters solid their votes. This doesn’t embrace the postal ballots.

Although there have been a complete of 47 candidates within the fray, the primary contest was amongst three main gamers – the TRS, the BJP, and the Congress.

The bypoll was necessitated after sitting MLA Rajagopal Reddy resigned from the Congress to hitch the BJP in August. This time, he contested on the BJP ticket.

The TRS fielded former MLA Prabhakar Reddy, who had misplaced to Rajagopal Reddy in 2018.

The Congress fielded Palvai Sravanthi Reddy, daughter of former MP Palvai Goverdhan Reddy.

In 2018, Rajagopal Reddy had received Munugode seat on Congress ticket, defeating his nearest rival Prabhakar Reddy of TRS by 23,552 votes.

Rajagopal Reddy had polled 99,239 votes whereas Prabhakar Reddy secured 61,687 votes. G. Manohar Reddy of the BJP was a poor third with 12,725 votes.