Andhra Pradesh: Polling underway in MPTC, ZPTC elections

The State Election Commission has categorised 6,314 of the total 27,751 polling stations as hyper-sensitive, and 6,492 as sensitive. As many as 247 polling stations are extremist-affected.

Polling is underway in 515 Zilla Parishad Territorial constituencies and 7,220 Mandal Parishad Territorial constituencies of Andhra Pradesh. Polling began at 7 am this morning and will continue till 5 pm. As of 11 am, 21.65 percent voting was recorded.

The elections are being held following an order of a division bench of the AP High Court comprising Chief Justice Arup Kumar Goswami and Justice C Praveen Kumar on Wednesday that set aside the single judge order and allowed the State Election Commission to conduct elections to MPTCs and ZPTCs as scheduled on April 8.

However, the court directed the SEC not to take up counting and declaration of results pending disposal of the petitions. A day before on Tuesday, the single judge bench of Justice U Durga Prasad Rao had stayed the election notification stating that the model code of conduct was not enforced as directed by the Supreme Court. Terming the elections ‘unlawful’, the opposition Telugu Desam Party had announced a boycott of the polls.

The State Election Commission has categorised 6,314 of the total 27,751 polling stations as hyper-sensitive, and 6,492 as sensitive. As many as 247 polling stations are extremist-affected. Arrangements for webcasting were made in 3,538 polling stations, according to officials.

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