YSRCP alleges agents blocked and voters stopped in Pulivendula as Palnadu logs 12% by 9 am

The YSR Congress Party on Thursday morning accused Telugu Desam Party workers and the police of keeping its polling agents out of booths and turning voters away in Pulivendula, the home turf of party chief Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, barely two hours after Andhra Pradesh began voting for its mandal and zilla parishads.

In a statement issued in Vijayawada, the party said police stopped its agents from entering the booth at the ZP High School in Vemula and stopped voters from reaching the polling station at Yerripalli. At E Kothapalli, it said, police and TDP groups held back both voters and agents, and at Arasavalli the police lathi-charged voters. The YSRCP also alleged that outsiders brought in by the TDP were blocking voters at Karnapapayapalli in neighbouring Lingala mandal.

Neither the TDP nor the police had responded to the allegations by 10 am.

Threats and a house arrest

The party’s list ran well beyond Kadapa. In Ramagiri mandal of Sri Sathya Sai district, it said, TDP leaders threatened to kill YSRCP polling agents if they entered the station, while police looked on. In Hindupur mandal, it alleged, TDP leaders stopped its MPTC candidate Rangayya from handing in his agents’ applications and tore them up.

It said Sakshi reporter Pulla Reddy was attacked at Lingala while covering the vote, his phone broken and his leg injured. In Chittoor, the party accused a personal assistant of coalition MLA Gurajala Jagan Mohan of going to the homes of YSRCP leaders and warning them not to act as agents.

Former MP Gorantla Madhav was placed under house arrest in Anantapur, the party said. In Kandukuru, police served a notice on former MLA Burra Madhusudhan Yadav warning of legal action if he broke restrictions. Yadav said he was only watching the process as Election Commission rules allow, and asked why the ruling party’s MLA faced no such curbs.

The YSRCP asked the State Election Commission and senior police officers to step in at once, protect voters, candidates, journalists and agents, and act against those behind the threats.

A slow start in Palnadu

Away from the allegations, Palnadu district reported a quiet morning. By 9 am, 12.06% of its 4,60,784 voters had cast their ballots at 576 polling stations across 11 mandals, district election authorities said, with no trouble reported.

Piduguralla led at 18.55%, followed by Gurazala and Sattenapalli at nearly 16.8% each. Chilakaluripet was slowest at 4.63%.

Elsewhere the weather left by Cyclone Murasu was still a factor. State Election Commission officials said polling had been put off to Friday in five mandals across Eluru and East Godavari and at two centres in another mandal. At Janardhanapuram in Gudivada constituency, rainwater flooded a polling station, and officials were reported to have laid sandbags as a walkway for elderly and disabled voters. All 120 voters of Rayanipeta in Bheemili mandal were reported to have stayed away in protest over the lack of basic amenities.

Voting for 582 ZPTC and 7,767 MPTC seats ends at 5 pm. Counting is on Saturday, 7 November.