Congress ahead in Telangana, initial trends show

Hyderabad: The Congress was leading in 65 out of the 119 seats in Telangana on Sunday when the votes polled in the November 30 Assembly elections were taken up for counting.

The initial trends showed the national party was racing ahead of the incumbent BRS, which was leading in 39 seats.

At the start of counting at 8 am, postal ballots were first taken up.

BJP and AIMIM were ahead in 6 and 4 seats, respectively.

The simple majority mark to form government in the southern state is 60 seats.

K Chandrasekhar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) has been in power since 2014, when Telangana was granted statehood and won the 2018 elections as well and is hopeful of a hattrick.

The Congress had mounted a spirited election campaign with a view to unseat the near decade-old incumbent, even as the BJP also launched a no holds-barred attack against the ruling dispensation.