StatesAndhra Pradesh
Andhra parishad polling under way as Cyclone Murasu pushes four Eluru mandals to Friday
Voting for 582 ZPTC and 7,767 MPTC seats began at 7 am under a 40,000-strong police cover, but rain left by the cyclone forced the State Election Commission to put off polling in Buttaigudem, Jeelugumilli, Velerupadu and Polavaram.
Key points
- Polling for 582 ZPTC and 7,767 MPTC seats began across Andhra Pradesh at 7 am.
- Four Eluru district mandals will now vote on Friday, 6 November, because of Cyclone Murasu.
- About 40,000 police personnel are guarding the polling stations.
Rural Andhra Pradesh began voting at 7 am on Thursday to choose members of its mandal and zilla parishads, but four mandals in Eluru district will have to wait a day. The State Election Commission put off polling in Buttaigudem, Jeelugumilli, Velerupadu and Polavaram to Friday, 6 November, owing to heavy rains caused by Cyclone Murasu.
Elsewhere, polling stations opened on time for 582 ZPTC and 7,767 MPTC seats, the ones left after 77 zilla parishad and 2,051 mandal parishad seats were decided unopposed. There are 2,169 candidates in the ZPTC contests and nearly 19,000 for MPTC seats. Voting ends at 5 pm.
About 2.61 crore people are eligible to vote, among them roughly 1.32 crore women, 1.28 crore men and 1,282 voters of other genders. Some 2.52 lakh election staff are on duty at about 31,500 polling stations, and the police have deployed as many as 40,000 personnel, with surveillance cameras installed at booths to watch for trouble.
Long walks and crowded buses
In the Paderu agency area of Alluri Sitarama Raju district, about 30 families of Moolapeta gram panchayat used the morning to demand a proper road. They said they were “forced to carry elderly people on palanquins for nearly 20 km” to reach their polling station.
Many voters had a long journey of a different kind. On Wednesday night the MGBS and LB Nagar bus stations in Hyderabad were packed with people from Andhra heading home to vote, some of them waiting till midnight for a bus in the rush of Diwali travel.
The vote follows a tense run-up, with the YSR Congress Party alleging attacks on its candidates during nominations. No turnout figure had been released by 8 am. Counting is on Saturday, 7 November.