The counting of votes for the Jubilee Hills by-election began at 8 a.m. on Monday at the Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy Indoor Stadium in Yousufguda. Officials set up 42 tables and planned to complete the process in ten rounds. The constituency has close to four lakh voters. Only half of them turned out on polling day. Among those who voted, 99,771 were men, 94,855 were women and five were listed under the “others” category. The low turnout created fresh suspense around the final outcome.
Both the BRS and the Congress entered the counting day with strong claims of victory. Police deployed heavy security around the counting centre as the bypoll attracted attention across the state.
Early trends began to arrive shortly after counting started. Congress moved into the lead in the very first round with 8,926 votes, while BRS secured 8,864. The Congress gained a narrow advantage of 62 votes.
The lead grew stronger in the second round. By the time officials completed the count, Congress candidate Naveen Yadav was ahead by 1,144 votes.
The momentum continued into the third round as well. Naveen Yadav maintained his upper hand and stretched his lead to around 1,200 votes. The official announcement for this round is awaited, yet the trend is clear. Congress is holding a steady early lead in what has become one of the most closely watched bypolls in Telangana.
More updates are expected as counting progresses through the remaining rounds.
