Vijayawada: Elections to local bodies begin today

Vijayawada: Krishna District Collector J Nivas instructed the district officials to complete the arrangements for the peaceful conduct of local body elections to be held for two municipalities, ZPTCs, MPTCs and some village panchayats in the district from November 14 to 16.

Collector Nivas on Saturday conducted tele conference with the officials and issued orders for the peaceful conduct of elections. Elections to elect five village sarpanches and 41 wards in the village panchayats will be held on November 14 and the counting of votes will be held on the same day. Elections for the two municipalities of Jaggaiahpet and Kondapalli will be held on November 15 and counting of votes will be held on November 17. Elections will be held to elect ZPTC and MPTC members in Pedana, Vissannapeta and G Konduru mandals of Krishna district on November 16. The counting of votes will be held on November 18.

Nivas instructed the officials to ensure free and fair elections and asked them to be on alert till completion of elections. He instructed the officials for webcasting of election process and follow the Covid guidelines. He asked the officials to work in co-ordination with the police officials. Joint collector K Mohan Kumar, L Siva Sankar and other officials attended the video conference.

On the other hand, the polling campaign for the two municipalities of Jaggaiahpet and Kondapalli ended on Saturday evening. Both Telugu Desam Party and the YSRCP vigorously canvassed to win the elections. TDP leaders Vijayawada MP Kesineni Srinivas, former MLAs Nettem Raghuram, Sriram Tataiah, Tangirala Sowmya and other leaders participated in the election campaign. The YSRCP leaders Endowments Minister Velampalli Srinivas, Jaggaiahpet MLA Samineni Udaya Bhanu, Mylavaram MLA Vasanta Krishna Prasad and other leaders participated in the election campaign in two municipalities. Elections to the ZPTCS, MPTCS and village panchayats were already held by the Election Commission. Now, the elections are being conducted for the pending ZPTC, MPTCs constituencies and villages.