Eerie calm prevails in Nandyal

Polling for byelection to commence at 7 a.m.

All set: Polling personnel leave for booths after collecting election material in Nandyal on Tuesday.

An eerie calm prevailed in Nandyal constituency on the eve of the byelection in which 2.19 lakh voters will vote.

Prohibitory orders under Section 144 Cr.P.C. have been promulgated in No 139 Nandyal Assembly constituency by Revenue Divisional Officer S. Ramsundar Reddy, preventing unlawful assembly of five or more persons and carrying of arms and other weapons.

Polling will commence from 7 a.m. While the Election Commission issued orders asking political functionaries and others who are non-residents of Nandyal constituency to leave the segment, several political functionaries stayed put in the houses of leaders at Banaganapalle, Allagadda and Mahanandi on the pretext of having darshan in temples there.

Returning Officer of Nandyal constituency Prasanna Venkatesh and other officials handed over polling material to officials and personnel drafted for duties. They proceeded with the electronic voting machines and VVPAT units and other material to 255 polling stations set up in the constituency. Twenty sectoral officers were appointed for 20 routes and live web casting had been arranged at the polling stations.

Six companies of the Central paramilitary forces, nine platoons of APSP, 15 platoons of Armed Reserve, eight platoons of special police, two SPs, nine additional SPs, 33 DSPs and about 2,500 police personnel were deployed for bandobust.

Police pickets led by sub-inspectors were posted in 42 municipal wards in Nandyal and 40 villages in the constituency.

The polling would be monitored by a drone camera, 259 body-on cameras and 60 CC cameras besides web casting cameras at the polling stations, according to Superintendent of Police Gopinath Jatti.

Mr. Jatti and Visakhapatnam SP Rahul Dev Sharma inspected the functioning of a drone camera near the polling station at Ayyaluru in Nandyal. Later they inspected Ponnapuram village and the polling station in it.

District Collector S. Satyanarayana appealed to the voters to exercise their franchise without any fear as arrangements were made for a peaceful and fair polling.