Polling passed off peacefully for Kadapa Municipal Corporation and seven municipalities in Kadapa district barring some stray incidents on Sunday.
Men and women lined up to cast votes in the polling stations braving the scorching sun. Several aged persons were escorted by their kin to cast vote. Polling was brisk in Kadapa, Proddatur, Jammalamadugu, Pulivendula, Yerraguntla, Rayachoti, Mydukur and Badvel municipalities.
Former Minister and YSR Congress leader Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy and followers staged dharna in front of Pulivendula police station demanding release of Anil Kumar, the party’s polling agent in the third ward in Pulivendula municipality. Police said he was taken into custody on charges of assaulting Independent candidate, Elia, on March 28.
Police resorted to lathicharge on Telugu Desam Party and YSRC functionaries in Badvel after they complained that an Independent candidate of the second municipal ward, Ramesh, distributed DKT pattas to voters. The TDP candidate’s husband, Anand, complained to police.
Five persons sustained head injuries when residents of the SC Colony in Yerraguntla attacked each other with cement bricks near the four-roads circle in Yerraguntla municipality on a row over distribution of voters slips and money in SC Colony in Yerraguntla. Police arrested four persons in connection with the clash.
A wordy duel ensued between Congress leader Madhusudan Reddy and YSRC leader Y.S. Bhaskar Reddy in the polling station in the old Government junior college in Pulivendula. Meanwhile, a complaint was lodged with Proddatur police that YSRC activists distributed silver plates to voters. Police kept TDP leader C. Sasi Kumar under house arrest in Kadapa.
YSRC honorary president Y.S. Vijayamma cast her vote in Yerragudi polling station in Pulivendula.
District Collector K. Sasidhar and Superintendent of Police G.V.G. Ashok Kumar exercised their franchise in a polling station near the PF office. The Collector, SP and Kadapa RDO D. Haritha visited several polling stations and monitored polling.
Jammalamadugu RDO G. Raghunath Reddy and his wife cast votes in the polling station in the mandal parishad high school in the SC Colony in Jammalamadugu. He visited the polling stations in PR high school, MPDO office, Bhagyanagar Colony, Dhanalakshmi high school Eedigapet girls high school, Nagulakatta and SC Colony and inspected polling.
