Amaravati, Nov 6 — Polling was underway on Friday for elections to Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies and Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies, in parts of East Godavari and Eluru districts, where polling could not be conducted on Thursday with the rest of Andhra Pradesh due to heavy rains.
Polling began at 7 a.m. for 60 Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (MPTCs) and five Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs) in the two districts.
Polling was on in 64 polling stations in Gopalapuram mandal of East Godavari district.
In Eluru, the polling was on in 125 polling stations in four mandals – Buttayagudem, Jeelugumilli, Polavaram and Velaripadu.
Re-polling was being held at seven polling stations in six districts due to the incidents of rigging during the polling on Thursday.
Police have made tight security arrangements at all the polling centres to prevent any incidents.
According to State Election Commission (SEC), 29.35 per cent polling was registered till 11 a.m. Polling will continue till 5 p.m.
Polling was held for 582 ZPTC and 7,767 MPTC seats on Thursday.
About 2.61 crore voters are eligible to cast their votes in MPTC and ZPTC polls. According to SEC, 67.24 per cent polling was recorded on Thursday.
After receiving reports about the incidents like damaging ballot boxes, rigging and other electoral malpractices, the SEC decided to conduct re-polling in few polling stations of Anantapur, Kurnool, Srikakulam, Markapuram and Palnadu district.
Sporadic incidents of violence were reported from some districts. Petrol bombs were hurled by rival groups at two places in YSR Kadapa and Tirupati districts. However, no one was injured in these attacks.
According to Director General of Police, Harish Kumar Gupta, 37 incidents were reported from 15 districts. He asked the police official to use available technology to identify those responsible and initiate strict legal action against anyone involved in electrical malpractices or disrupting the poll process.
The counting of votes will be taken up on Saturday.