Three BRS candidates elected unopposed to Telangana Council

Hyderabad, March 16:  All three candidates of Telangana's ruling party Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) were Thursday elected unopposed to the Legislative Council under MLA quota.

Deshapati Srinivas, K. Naveen Kumar, and Challa Venkatrami Reddy were declared elected as no other candidate was in fray. Thursday was the last day for withdrawal of nominations.

An independent candidate had filed the nomination but the same was rejected by the Election Commission. Returning officer declared that all three candidates of BRS have been elected without contest.

While Naveen Kumar has been elected to the upper house of the state legislature for the second term, two others are first-time MLCs.

Poet and singer Srinivas was earlier serving as Officer on Special Duty in the Chief Minister's Office. Venkatrami Reddy is a former MLA from Alampur constituency.

Soon after their election, the three MLCs called on BRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. He greeted and blessed them.

Meanwhile, counting of votes was on for Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad teachers' MLC seat. As none of the candidates polled more than 50 per cent of first preference votes, the poll officials took up counting of second preference votes. A.V.N. Reddy had polled 7,505 first preference votes while Chenna Keshav Reddy secured 6,584 votes. The result is likely to be announced on Friday morning.