Tirupati: Kuppam municipality to go to polls today

Tirupati: Kuppam, the remote and new municipality in Chittoor district, is going to polls on Monday. The town attained municipal status in 2019 and this is the first election for the municipal council which has become a do or die situation for both YSRCP and TDP to establish their edge over others. The campaigning during the last one week witnessed some unpleasant scenes with exchange of words between the rival parties.

As TDP national president N Chandrababu Naidu has been representing the constituency in the Assembly since 1989, it has become a stronghold for the party and its leaders naturally believing that they will capture the municipality if the elections are held fairly and peacefully. After assuming power in the state in 2019, YSRCP and in particular Naidu's arch rival and Minister for Panchayat Raj Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy has been trying to make deep inroads into the constituency.

After establishing its dominance in the local body polls, the YSRCP now wants to establish its lead in the Kuppam town itself which has given more than 10,000 votes margin for Naidu over his opponent and YSRCP candidate Chandramouli in the 2019 Assembly elections.

TDP on the other hand, wants to consolidate its vote bank by winning the municipality by a big margin. Senior leaders including Ministers Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, K Narayana Swamy, MPs, MLAs and others of YSRCP and former Ministers N Lokesh, N Amarnath Reddy, MLA N Rama Naidu and other leaders on behalf of TDP have campaigned intensively for their party candidates.

Both the parties have allegedly dumped outsiders in the constituency in a planned way to cast bogus votes on polling day. The parties accused each other of inducing the voters by offering money, sarees etc., and trying to prevent them from doing so. Tension surrounds the municipal area ahead of the polling as the parties will not leave any opportunity to gain advantage.

Polling for 24 wards of the 25 wards in municipality will be held from 7 am to 5 pm on Monday. YSRCP candidate was declared elected in the 14 ward against the strong objections of TDP.

Meanwhile, Municipal Commissioner V S Chittibabu said that 48 polling stations were set up in the town for the convenience of voters. There will be 48 polling officers, 48 assistant polling officers and 96 polling staff on duty along with election observers and other staff. Out of the 48 polling stations 16 are identified as hyper-sensitive and another 22 are sensitive and each of these stations will be guarded by 10 police sleuths to prevent any untoward incident.