The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi made a clean sweep of MLC posts in the biennial elections under MLAs quota on Tuesday. All the four TRS candidates, along with one AIMIM candidate, were declared elected after polling was held for the five seats that fell vacant.
The four TRS candidates which include Home Minister Mohd Mahmood Ali, Seri Subhash Reddy, Satyavathi Rathod and Yegge Mallesham, along with AIMIM candidate Mirza Riyaz ul Hasan Effendi romped home in the one-sided election.
Though Congress fielded Guduru Narayana Reddy, the party did not have enough strength in the Assembly to get its candidate elected, and hence, decided to abstain from voting. The Congress leaders said they were boycotting the election in protest against the ruling TRS encouraging Congress legislators to join TRS.
The Congress strength in the State Assembly has slipped from 19 to 15 with four MLAs announcing that they would join the TRS.