The Telangana Rashtra Samiti ‘car’ has been hit by the ‘auto’ once again, this time in Parkal byelection. An Independent candidate, Gali Ravi who was assigned the ‘autorickshaw’ or the ‘auto’ as it is commonly referred to, polled as much as 3,084 votes, double the victory margin of TRS candidate M. Bikshapati. Mr Bikshapati won the seat by 1,562 votes and escaped from the jaws of defeat against YSR Congress nominee Konda Surekha.
The party has been crying hoarse against allotment of what it calls “confusing” symbols like the auto, hat, rail engine and road roller that look similar to its symbol, the car. However, the Election Commission had rejected its plea. The party leaders partly blame the ‘autorickshaw’ for its close shave, saying that most of the votes polled for the ‘auto’ and ‘hat’ would have gone to their nominee.
In fact, the combined votes of the Independents were 7,936, the TRS points out. “Our fears have come true once again. It happened in Station Ghanapur in the past, Mahbubnagar and now in Parkal. The ‘auto’ symbol is literally leaving us scared,” TRS Warangal unit president Peddi Sudarshan Reddy told this newspaper. Incidentally, Independent candidates who were allotted the ‘auto’ as a symbol polled 7,197 votes in Kollapur, 6,234 in Station Ghanapur, 6,759 in Kamareddy and 3,961 in Adilabad in the last byelections.