The second phase polling to gram panchayats on Saturday, covering 6,971 villages, was marred by several incidents, some of them violent, but the overall voting was encouraging at 87.29 per cent.
At nearly a dozen places, clashes broke out between Congress and Telugu Desam workers and at other places, the duel involved those of YSR Congress at one end and Telugu Desam or Congress at the other.
About 10 Telugu Desam followers were injured in one such clash at Enikepalli in Mahabubnagar district. The injured with bandages on heads and hands, including two women, were presented before the State Election Commission Secretary Navin Mittal, by the area’s Telugu Desam MLA A. Revanth Reddy. The commission sought a report from the Collector to take action.
Clashes were reported from at Vellatur (Krishna district), Dammalapadu, Tadeplli, (Guntur), T. Kammapalli, Balijapalli (Kadapa) and Manyapuratla, Damulavaka (Visakhapatnam).
A day-long drama was witnessed at Mulapadu in Krishna district where Telugu Desam MLA Devinni Uma complained that there were 250 voters with the same door number.
This pitted him against the Congress MP L. Rajagopal. Election authorities, however, clarified that all the voters were labourers living under one shed.
The Commission countermanded the elections to three panchayats-- two in East Godavari (Ganganapalli and Bilakur) and one in Anantapur (Palyam) following sudden demise of the contestants. It announced fresh schedule to conduct polling on August 13, not only for these but also for 6 other panchayats, all in Visakhapatnam, where naxalites snatched away nominations papers.
These panchayats were Boithil, Kilamkota, Beeram, Nurmathi, Jamiguda and Ginnelakota.
Voting was so brisk that many booths registered nearly 50 per cent polling by 10 am. Two women, one of them young, dropped dead at booths in Khammam and Nalgonda districts.
The exercise was disrupted at half dozen booths as symbols were either printed wrongly or found missing on ballot papers. Miscreants poured water into ballot boxes at Balijapalli in Kadapa district.
