A day after seeking postponement of the election to the Gollalagunta panchayat, sarpanch aspirant S. Pushpavathi and her family have expressed their willingness to go ahead with the election as per schedule in the first phase itself.
Ms. Pushpavathi had on Tuesday urged State Election Commissioner N. Ramesh Kumar to postpone the election following the death of her husband under suspicious circumstances on Monday. Responding to her plea, Mr. Ramesh Kumar had asked the officials to examine the possibility of postponing the election.
A team, comprising Peddapuram Revenue Divisional Officer S. Mallibabu and DSP A. Srinivasa Rao, on Wednesday met the family of Ms. Pushpavathi and the villagers and discussed the issue.
Speaking to newsmen later, Mr. Mallibabu said, “Ms. Pushpavathi and the villagers have been consulted to fix the date of the polling. They, however, have expressed their preparedness to go to the poll as per the previous schedule.”
“The family of Ms. Pushpavathi has been assured of security cover, apart from deployment of additional teams to conduct the election to the panchayat peacefully,” Mr. Mallibabu said.
Mr. Srinivasa Rao said that the panchayat was under watch to avoid any untoward incident.