Polling stalled at 2 centres in Tirupati due to rigging

Tirupati/Kadapa/Chittoor: The polling to elect graduates and teachers MLCs of East Rayalaseema constituency comprising Chittoor, Nellore and Prakasam districts was completed on Monday amid the alleged high handedness of the ruling party leaders and demands for repolling by Left parties. The opposition parties have alleged large scale rigging by the ruling party workers in which police have become silent spectators. They also claimed that several bogus voters, who did not even complete their SSC, were enrolled in the voters' list and allowed to cast their votes. In Tirupati district, polling in the graduates' constituency has recorded 63.56 per cent while the teachers' constituency recorded a massive 82.54 per cent. Out of 86,941 voters 55,261 votes were polled in the district. In the teachers' constituency, out of 6,133 voters, 5,064 could cast their votes. Teachers who were up in arms against the government in recent times, actively involved in the polling process due to which the poll percentage has crossed 82.

District Election Officer K Venkataramana Reddy said that the percentages were reported at 4 pm which may be revised after those standing in queue lines exercise their franchise. He said the presiding officers at 229 polling centre in government girls high school, Chinna Bazar street and 233 polling centre in ZP high school in Satyanarayanapuram in the city have reported rigging and stopped the polling. Cases were also filed. The report was sent to the Election Commission and further decisions will be taken following the directions of the EC.

Meanwhile SP P Parameswar Reddy monitored the polling trends from the morning and gave necessary directions to the police staff through wireless sets from time to time. He said that additional staff were deployed at problematic polling centres to enable the voters to cast their votes freely.

In Kadapa, 91.3 percent of teachers and 72 percent graduates exercised their franchise in MLC elections on Monday. In a statement YS District Collector V Vijaya Rama Raju said that the polling for both teachers and graduates 'elections were held peacefully. Kadapa MP YS Avinash Reddy has exercised his franchise at Satram High School while Graduates MLC candidate Bhoomi Reddy Ramgopal Reddy has exercise his franchise in Pulivendula town.

Meanwhile tension prevailed after TDP functionaries entered heated argument with the YSRCP men at Ramana Maharshi school in Proddaturu town alleging that the YSRCP functionaries were distributing Rs 1,000 to each voter standing in the line. Police rushed to the spot and dispersed them.

In Lingala mandal of Pulivendula constituency, YSRCP men allegedly destroyed the car of TDP Pulivendula in-charge Maram Reddy Ravindranath Reddy popularly known as B Tech Ravi when he tried to prevent the booth capturing by ruling party leaders. In the incident, some persons from both the groups received minor injuries.

In Chittoor, District Collector and Election Returning Officer M Hari Narayanan said that 79.48 percent of voters have exercised their franchise in Prakasam–Nellore–Chittoor districts Graduates constituency poll whereas 89.07 percent of voters cast vote in Teachers' Constituency poll held on Monday. Speaking to media men here, he said that in Graduates constituency, 43,039 voters and in Teachers' constituency 3,462 teachers have exercised their franchise. He said the counting of votes will be held on March 16 at SVS Degree College.