Polling was peaceful barring some minor incidents in the 22 mandals to elect MPTCs and ZPTCs on Sunday.
While hectic polling was witnessed in Narsipatnam area, it was somewhat dull in the Anakapalle region with voting continuing after 5 p.m.
With the day being hot and at some places the staff being inexperienced polling got delayed. With the Election Commission direction that those in queue till 5 p.m. should be allowed to vote the process went on after the stipulated 5 p.m. As a result polling went on till 7 p.m. at some places. At Achyutapuram it continued till 7 p.m. and at the nearby Maduru it concluded at 7.30 p.m. A total of 88 and 912 candidates were in the fray for 22 ZPPCs and 379 MPTCs.
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In some places like Narsipatnam and Makavarapalem, the Congress has no nominees for MPTCs and in Kotauratla only Congress was able to put up nominees for three of the 16 MPTCs.
The second phase of polling will take place on April 11.
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At BRT Colony under Pisinikada an eight-year-old boy was injured when police dispersed a crowd, reports said. For half an hour polling came to a halt when voters alleged that the stamping was rubbing off on the ballot and it might lead to ballots turning invalid. At Mutyalammapalem in Paravada mandal TDP and YSRC workers jostled near a polling booth and police intervention brought the situation under control. The district recorded 83.2 per cent and following are polling figures in various mandals, percentages in brackets. Bheemunipatnam (84.37), Anandapuram (86), Padmanabham (87.74), Pendurthi (92.1), K.Kotapadu (86), Sabbavaram (89.86), Parawada (85.17), Anakapalli (84), Kasimkota (69.66), Munagapaka (87.69), Atchutapuram (88.2), Rambilli (76.91), Yelamanchili (87.52), S.Rayavaram (81.53), Kotauratla (85.18), Nakkapalli (80.74), Payakaraopeta (76.81), Narsipatnam (86.73), Makavarapalem (83.69), Butchayyapeta (82.3), Chodavaram (79.15), Cheedikada (84.6).