Telangana's Home Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali was among the five candidates elected to the state Legislative Council on Tuesday.

Ali, Yegge Mallesham, Seri Subash Reddy and Satyavathi Rathod, all belonging to ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Mirza Riyaz ul Hasan Effendi of TRS ally All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) were elected to the upper house from the MLA's quota.

Their election was a formality after the opposition decided to stay away from polling.

Members of state Assembly cast their votes in the elections on Tuesday. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, his cabinet colleagues and all other members of the TRS and the AIMIM participated in the voting.

According to poll officials, 91 MLAs of the TRS and seven of the AIMIM cast their votes.

The Congress, which had a strength of 19 in 119-member Assembly, also fielded a candidate with the hope of getting support of both the MLAs of its ally Telugu Desam Party (TDP). However, during last one week, four of its MLAs and one of the TDP defected to the ruling party.

Accusing the TRS of engineering defections, the Congress decided to boycott the elections and the TDP followed suit.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief Uttam Kumar Reddy said that though they cooperated with TRS in unanimous election of Speaker and Deputy Speaker, the ruling party's attitude was undemocratic. He alleged that Chief Minister KCR was resorting to "undemocratic, illegal and unethical" practices to engineer defections in opposition parties.

Congress's floor leader in the Assembly, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said the TRS government's actions posed a threat to democracy. 

"Opposition is required for a democracy to run effectively but the Chief Minister is trying to finish off the democracy by ensuring that there is no opposition," he said and called for a national debate on the happenings in Telangana.

A whip was also issued to all party members to boycott the election and abstain from voting.

IANS inputs