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The Andhra Pradesh State Election Commission (SEC) has allowed submission of nominations in four Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) – Kadapa, Tirupati, Rajampet and Mydukur – for two more days, October 23 and 24.
The original nomination window for ULBs was from October 16 to 18, which saw several reported incidents of the Opposition YSRCP nominees facing intimidation and violence from ruling TDP members who allegedly stopped them from filing nominations.
The YSRCP had approached the Supreme Court over the matter, and the court had asked the SEC to postpone publishing the final list of candidates. It also asked them to examine representations by the YSRCP or any other candidates regarding the inability to file nominations due to intimidation or violence.
The SEC on October 21 issued a notification pausing the election process in all 100 ULBs until it examined reports from district Collectors, election authorities, Commissioners of Police and Superintendents of Police. In a subsequent notification issued on October 22, the SEC said that “in certain Urban Local Bodies, some candidates, who were willing to contest, have been intimidated or attacked or their nomination papers were torn or by any adversarial circumstance prevented such candidates from filing nominations.”
The SEC said that it noticed such incidents in four ULBs – the Kadapa and Tirupati Municipal Corporations and the Rajampet and Mydukur Municipalities – and decided to provide them another opportunity to file nominations.
The fresh nominations can be filed on October 23 and 24. They will be scrutinised on October 25, and the final list of candidates will be published the same day. Polling will happen on November 1.
Similar incidents of intimidation and violence were reported during the nomination process for the Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency (MPTC) and Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency (ZPTC) polls which began on October 21 and will conclude on October 23.
Many videos have surfaced from across Andhra Pradesh which purportedly show TDP members snatching nomination forms of YSRCP candidates and tearing them up, raising questions on the integrity of the local body election process in the state.
