Following Supreme Court directions, Andhra Pradesh urban polls paused

NEW DELHI: The Andhra Pradesh State Election Commission paused the election process for all 100 urban local bodies following the Supreme Court order on postponing the publication of the final list of candidates after Opposition YSRCP's allegation that its candidates were being prevented from filing nominations.

In an order late on Wednesday, state election commissioner Anil Chandra Punetha said, "The State Election Commission, hereby, orders that the further election process in respect of all 100 urban local bodies in the state shall be stopped forthwith."

Punetha held a meeting with collectors and superintendents of police of seven districts - YSR Kadapa, Annamayya, Tirupati, Anantapuramu, Prakasam, Palnadu and Markapuram.


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Even as SEC paused the process, YSRCP alleged that the ruling TDP cadres continued to attack and intimidate its candidates for the second consecutive day. The Opposition party released videos of several places and alleged that the modus operandi had been to not allow senior YSRCP leaders to accompany candidates to nomination centres and then snatch the nomination papers to prevent them from filing.

A YSRCP statement said, "From early morning on Thursday, the police placed under house arrest several senior YSRCP leaders to prevent them from participating in the nomination process. While TDP leaders and cadres were allegedly attacking Opposition candidates and obstructing nominations, police remained silent and instead targeted YSRCP leaders and workers."

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The party's Kadapa MP YS Avinash Reddy was detained by the police. YSRCP released a video which showed Reddy being physically carried out by policemen from his home.

TDP leader Kommareddy Pattabhiram dismissed the YSRCP's allegations that candidates were being prevented from filing nominations in the local body elections. Speaking to the media at the TDP central office in Mangalagiri, he questioned how more than 23,000 nominations from various parties had been filed if candidates were being obstructed. He cited Kuppam, the constituency of chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, and Pithapuram, deputy chief minister Pawan Kalyan's constituency, pointing out that YSRCP candidates had filed nominations in both places.

Pattabhiram said that the alleged irregularities witnessed during the previous YSRCP government were not occurring under the current administration. He also recalled that the state election commissioner at the time, Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar, had written to the Union home ministry expressing concern over security in the state.

The TDP leader said that on the first day of the nomination process for the Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency (MPTC) and Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency (ZPTC) elections on Wednesday, 5,267 nominations were filed for 9,829 MPTC seats, including 2,719 by TDP and 1,918 by YSRCP. Similarly, 409 nominations were filed for 659 ZPTC seats, including 192 by YSRCP and 128 by TDP. He argued that these figures contradicted claims that the government was preventing nominations and described allegations of violence and disorder as ridiculous. He alleged that violence and disorder were part of YSRCP's political culture.