Hyderabad, Nov 14 : Telangana's ruling Congress party established an early lead as the counting was underway in the byelection to the Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency in Hyderabad on Friday.

After the first two rounds, Naveen Yadav of Congress was leading by nearly 3,000 votes against his nearest rival, Maganti Sunitha of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

At the end of the second round, Naveen Yadav had secured 17,874 votes while Sunitha had polled 14,879 votes. Lankala Deepak Reddy of the BJP was in distant third place with just 3,475 votes.

In the first round, the Congress had taken a slender lead of 47 votes, which increased to 2,995 in the second round.

The counting of votes was underway under tight security arrangements at Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy Stadium in Yousufguda.

Election authorities have arranged 42 tables for counting, and the entire process will be completed in 10 rounds.

District Election Officer R.V. Karnan said each round of counting is expected to take 40 minutes. The result is likely to be declared by 2 p.m.

The byelection on November 11 saw 48.49 per cent polling. A total of 1,94,631 votes were polled. Officials said 99,771 men, 94,855 women and five others cast their votes. The number of postal ballots is 101.

The constituency has a total of 4,01,365 voters comprising 2,08,561 males, 1,92,779 females and 25 others.

As many as 58 candidates are in the fray in the by-election caused by the death of sitting MLA Maganti Gopinath of BRS.

The BRS fielded Gopinathâ??s wife, Sunitha, who is locked in a direct fight with the ruling Congress partyâ??s Naveen Yadav. The BJP once again fielded Lankala Deepak Reddy.

Exit polls by several leading agencies suggest that Congress is set to wrest the seat from BRS. The Congress party is projected to secure 46-48 per cent votes, while BRS is likely to trail with 41-42 per cent votes. The BJP may finish a distant third with just 6-8 per cent votes.

In 2023, Gopinath of BRS had scored a hat-trick by defeating his nearest rival, Mohammed Azharuddin of the Congress party by a margin of 16,337 votes.

BRS candidate secured 80,549 votes while Azharuddin polled 64,212 votes. BJPâ??s Deepak Reddy finished third with 25,866 votes. AIMIMâ??s Farazuddin was fourth with just 7,848 votes.

This time, AIMIM, led by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, supported the Congress candidate.

/IANS