Hyderabad, Nov 24 (IANS): The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) was heading to retain Warangal Lok Sabha seat as its candidate established a lead in the initial rounds.
Pasunuri Dayakar of TRS was ahead by a majority of over one lakh votes in the third round of counting.
The candidates of two other major contenders Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were trailing far behind at second and third place respectively.
Dayakar took the lead from the first round and established a clear lead in three rounds in all seven assembly segments. The counting of votes began at 8 a.m. on Tuesday.
About 69 percent of 15 lakh voters had cast their votes in Saturday's bye-election, necessitated by the resignation of Kadiam Srihari after he was made deputy chief minister of the state.
In 2014 elections, Srihari had won by a massive majority of 3.92 lakh votes.