Amaravati: Polling was underway for MPTC and ZPTC elections across Andhra Pradesh on Thursday amid tight security.
Polling began at 7 a.m. at 31,460 polling centres for Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (MPTCs) and Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs). Voters were seen lined up at polling centres since morning to cast their votes.
About 2.61 crore voters are eligible to participate in the polling process, which will continue till 5 a.m., the State Election Commission (SEC) officials said.
Polling is being held for 582 ZPTC and 7,767 MPTC seats.
Out of the 663 ZPTCs, polling notification was issued for 659 ZPTCs. Similarly, the notification was issued for 9,829 MPTCs out of 9,858 ZPTCs in the state.
Elections to 77 ZPTCs and 2,051 MPTC seats have been unanimous.
A total of 21,012 candidates are in the fray for these polls. According to the SEC, 2,169 candidates are contesting ZPTC seats while 18,843 are in fray for MPTC polls.
The SEC has deployed 2,01,116 polling officers and other staff for conducting the polling process.
In view of heavy rain, the SEC has postponed polling in five mandals in Eluru and East Godavari districts. Polling has also been postponed at two polling centres in another mandal. Polling in these mandals will be held on Friday.
In view of the incidents of violence reported during the nomination process for urban local bodies and MPTC and ZPTC polls, and also during the polling for urban local bodies, the SEC has made elaborate arrangements for peaceful, free and fair polls. Additional forces have been deployed in Palnadu, Annamayya, YSR Kadapa and Tirupati districts.
The SEC identified 8,904 polling stations as sensitive and 7,160 centres as hyper sensitive.
CCTV cameras have been deployed at 16,084 polling centres. The SEC has made arrangements for webcasting at 6,000 centres, while videography has been arranged at 6,507 centres.
Repoll, if any, will be conducted on November 6, while counting of votes will be taken up on November 7.
The polling was originally scheduled on November 4. However, the SEC rescheduled the polling in view of the postponement of urban local body elections from October 28 to November 1, following the Supreme Court order.
The TDP-led ruling coalition, the NDA, is confident of winning the majority of seats. TDP and its allies, Jana Sena and BJP, have already made a clean sweep in municipal elections, winning 95 out of 100 urban local bodies for which elections were held on November 1.
(IANS)
