Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy of TRS inching closer to Munugode victory

MUNUGODE: TRS candidate Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy was inching closer to a historic victory in a tight race, after 13 rounds of vote counting for the Munugode Assembly by-election on Sunday. TRS candidate Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy was forging ahead with a near-unassailable lead of 9,136 votes against his nearest rival, Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy of the BJP. Interestingly, the TRS kept steadily building on its lead at the end of every round of counting despite the slender margins due to the close contest.

With just two more rounds to go, the ruling party firmly appeared on its way to wresting the seat, capping a month-long high-voltage campaigning by three major political parties.

At the end of the 13th round, the TRS candidate Prabhakar Reddy notched up 6,691 votes as against his rival Rajgopal Reddy, who had to be content with 5,406 votes. The TRS lead in this particular round was 1,285 votes.

In the 12th round, Prabhakar Reddy received 7,440 votes while Rajgopal Reddy managed a total of 5,398 votes. The TRS, in this round, got a lead of 2,042 which took its overall lead to 7,836 votes.

An estimated 35,000 votes were expected to be counted in the next three rounds. Unless, all hell breaks loose, TRS candidate Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy is expected to continue this impressive run and eventually emerge victorious.

After 12 rounds, Prabhakar Reddy polled a total of 81,825 votes, closely followed by Rajgopal Reddy with 74,225 votes. Palvai Shravanti of the Congress was at a distant third with 21,218 votes.