TRS appears set for a two-thirds majority in Telangana

Hyderabad, Dec 11 (IANS) The gamble for early polls appears to have paid rich dividends as the Telangana Rashtra Samithi on Tuesday appeared to be advancing towards a two-third majority in the 119-member Assembly.

The TRS took early leads in a majority of the constituencies for which trends were available as officials counted the hundreds of thousands of votes.

The ruling party candidates were ahead of their rivals in 82 constituencies while the other major contender for power, the Congress-led People's Front, was leading in just 17 places.

People seem to have dismissed the alliance between the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) as the four-party People's Front was heading for a drubbing.

Many top leaders of Congress were trailing in their constituencies while TDP, Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) and Communist Party of India (CPI) were not leading in any of the constituencies they contested.

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) was leading in three segments and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in four.

TRS President and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao's daughter K. Kavitha said there was no doubt that the party would retain power with a huge majority.

Kavitha, a member of the Lok Sabha, said there was no anti-incumbency as the TRS government had done well on all fronts during the last four-and-a-half years.

As many as 73.20 per cent of 2.80 crore electorate voted in the elections held in all 119 constituencies on Friday.

The TRS won 63 seats in 2014 while Congress had finished with 21.

KCR dissolved the Assembly in September, eight months before its term was to end.