Hyderabad, Nov 2 (IANS): The BJP has taken an early lead in Telangana's Huzurabad constituency where counting of votes polled in the October 30 by-election was underway on Tuesday.

Eatala Rajender of the BJP was leading 1,263 votes against his nearest rival G. Srinivas Yadav of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) at the end of the third round of counting.

Rajender, whose resignation caused the bypoll, secured a total of 13,525 votes at the end of the third round, while Yadav had polled 12,262 votes. Venkat Balmoor of the Congress party was a distant third with just 446 votes

Rajender, who took the lead of 166 votes in the first round, increased it to an overall lead of 358 votes at the end of second round. The BJP's candidate's leads surged to 1,263 at the end of third round.

There will be a total of 22 rounds of counting. Out of 2,36,837 voters, 2,05,053 had cast their votes in the by-election.

The counting began at 8 a.m. at SRR College in Huzurabad amid tight security arrangements. The postal ballots were counted first. TRS secured 503 postal votes against 159 by BJP and 32 by Congress. Another 14 postal votes were declared invalid.

The Election Commission has prohibited any victory procession after the counting. According to the orders issued by the CEO, not more than two persons will be allowed to accompany the winning candidate or his representative while receiving the certificate of election from the Returning Officer.

A total of 30 candidates were in fray in the bye-election, caused by the resignation of Eatala Rajender after he was dropped from State Cabinet by Chief Minister K. Chandraekhar Rao following allegations of land grabbing.

Rajender, who had been representing Huzurabad seat since 2009, contested as BJP candidate.