Hyderabad: Telangana’s ruling Congress party established an early lead as the counting was underway in the byelection to the Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency in Hyderabad on Friday.

After the first two rounds, Naveen Yadav of Congress was leading by nearly 3,000 votes against his nearest rival, Maganti Sunitha of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

At the end of the second round, Naveen Yadav had secured 17,874 votes while Sunitha had polled 14,879 votes. Lankala Deepak Reddy of the BJP was in distant third place with just 3,475 votes.

In the first round, the Congress had taken a slender lead of 47 votes, which increased to 2,995 in the second round.

The counting of votes was underway under tight security arrangements at Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy Stadium in Yousufguda.

Election author

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