Andhra Pradesh, which is seeing simultaneous Assembly and Lok Sabha polls as the first phase of voting for the General Elections began on Thursday, has had multiple cases of clashes between Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and YSRCP till noon. According to reports, a TDP member lost his life after an altercation with YSRCP workers. The incident took place in Tadipatri mandal in Andhra's Anantapur district.
Siddha Bhaskar Reddy, a local TDP leader, was killed after he sustained injuries in a clash of his party cadres with YSRCP members. The incident took place at Tadipatri Assembly constituency in Anantapur district, police said.
Reddy was critically injured in the clash at a polling booth in Devapuram village. He succumbed to his injuries on way to the hospital.
YSRCP claimed that one of their workers also died in the clash.
#WATCH: Clash broke out between YSRCP and TDP workers in Puthalapattu Constituency in Bandarlapalli, Andhra Pradesh. Police resorted to lathi-charge pic.twitter.com/q7vxRIR0R8
— ANI (@ANI) April 11, 2019
In another incident of violence between the parties, MLA and Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kodela Sivaprasad Rao and his gunman were heckled, allegedly by YSRCP workers, during polling at Sattenapalli Assembly constituency in Guntur district. Kodela's shirt was reportedly torn by the attackers at a polling centre in Yanametla village. Visuals showed that he fell unconscious after the attack.
Incumbent MLA and #AndhraPradesh assembly speaker who is contesting from Sattenapalli Assembly constituency Kodela Siva Prasada Rao and his gun-man were allegedly manhandled by #YSRCongress activists during polling. #AndhraPradesh #ElectionsWithNews18 pic.twitter.com/wAPOqu9NZW
— Aashish (@Ashi_IndiaToday) April 11, 2019
Earlier, a YSRCP leader Matta Raju was attacked allegedly by TDP workers at a polling station in Indira Colony High School in West Godavari district’s Eluru constituency. In another incident, in Narasaraopet constituency in Guntur, TDP candidate Aravindu Babu was allegedly attacked by YSRCP workers.
In a case of vandalism, a Jana Sena candidate Madhusudan Gupta was arrested for damaging an EVM machine in the Guntakal Assembly constituency in Anantapur district. He hurled the EVM machine on to the floor because the names of the Assembly and Parliament constituencies were not displayed properly on it.
(With IANS inputs)