Arrangements in place for re-polls: Collector

Nellore: District administration is gearing up for conducting re-poll in Sullurpet and Kovur Assembly constituencies on May 6. Polling would be held at Pallepalem in Kovur and Atakanitippa in Sullurpet. The Election Commission also conducted review with the officials on Friday and collected information on measures for organising the polls in the district.

CEO Gopala Krishna Dwivedi suggested to get ready with additional EVMs, micro observers, videographers, drinking water, shelter for voters for protecting from sunlight and police monitoring besides conducting mock poll giving no scope for any criticism.

Election is being conducted between 7 am to 6 pm on the day. District Collector R Mutyala Raju, who interacted with the media on Friday evening, said that they had made all arrangements for conducting re-poll on May 6.

The Collector said there are 1,084 voters in polling station 41 (Pallepalem in Iskapalli panchayat of Buchireddy Palem mandal) of Nellore Parliamentary constituency and 558 voters in polling station 197 in Sullurpet constituency in Tirupati Lok Sabha segment where 500 votes that comes to around 89.6 per cent polled earlier. Polling would be conducted only for Lok Sabha seat.

In fact, there was no rigging, no rioting or any other law and order issues in Pallepalem village where local population wonder why the EC is conducting poll again. It was said only mistakes of poll staff were the reasons behind the re-polling. Out of 1,084 voters, 831 people casted their votes that comes to around 76.66 per cent in the polling on April 11.

District SP Aishwarya Rastogi said that they had positioned forces for conducting the poll peacefully in two places. They allow polling agents inside the polling stations duly checking them. The Collector also interacted with the returning officers of the two places and asked them to distribute voter slips before May 4 evening.

Raju also asked to arrange three separate entrances for men, women and differently able persons besides getting ready wheel chairs for the elderly and differently abled. He also suggested to keep ORS packets and other emergency medicines ready keeping in view of searing temperatures. Joint Collector Vetri Selvi was also present.