Surabhi Vani Devi, daughter of former Prime Minister of India P V Narasimha Rao, won the election to Telangana state legislative council from Hyderabad-Ranga Reddy-Mahabubnagar graduates’ constituency on Telangana Rashtra Samithi ticket, after four-days of laborious counting process.
Vani, who secured 1,12,689 first preferential votes (around 33 per cent), managed to win the seat after counting of second preferential votes, which increased the vote tally to 1,49,269 votes, after the elimination of all the other rivals, including independent candidate Prof K Nagehwar and Congress candidate G Chinna Reddy.
Actually, she was supposed to get 1,68,520 votes, but since there are no other candidates left, except her nearest rival N Ramachander Rao of Bharatiya Janata Party, who ended up with 137566 votes.
Since there is no chance of Ramachandra Rao getting any more votes, Vani was declared elected as the MLC.
It is a big relief to the TRS to win the seat, though technically, it does not make difference for the party in the legislative council, as it already as 36 out of 40 seats. But not exactly a moral victory, as Vani could not get the required 50 per cent vote share for the MLC seat. That way, Ramachander Rao gave her a very tough fight.
The presence of large number of independent candidates which resulted in division of anti-TRS votes and declaration of over 20,000 votes as invalid also helped Vani’s victory.
