Amid a tense atmosphere and unprecedented security for the election of the Tadipatri Municipal Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson, Telugu Desam Party candidates came out victorious on Thursday with former MLA J.C. Prabhakar Reddy elected as Chairman and P. Saraswati as Deputy Chairperson.
The fear of last-minute jumping of fences by ward members seemed so real that even in the Tadipatri Municipal Council Hall there was a high-rise ‘mesh’ barricading while the Dharmavaram Revenue Divisional Officer G.R. Madhusudhan administered the oath of office at a time commonly and later conducted the election process.
While Mr. Prabhakar Reddy got 20 votes (18 elected ward members of TDP, one each of CPI and Independent) the YSR Congress Party candidate Heerapuram Fayaz Basha got 18 votes (including that of two ex-officio members). Similarly, the YSRCP had fielded Pula Rupa (who had won by toss) as Deputy Chairperson candidate against P. Saraswati (9th Ward). The TDP candidates were declared elected.
Second term
This is the second term Mr. Prabhakar Reddy will be serving as the Chairman. He was elected as Chairman in 2004 and as Deputy Chairman in 2009. In 2014, he was elected as the Tadipatri MLA.
The statement of in-charge Minister Botcha Satyanarayana on Wednesday that the Independent candidate could vote as per his will, had generated curiosity among people as to which way would he vote.
More than 600 police personnel guided by Tadipatri DSP V.N.K. Chaitanya and Anantapur DSP G. Veeraraghava Reddy guarded all the roads leading to the Municipal Council Hall and did not allow any unauthorised person to come anywhere near.
State Election Observers Joint Collectors Harshvardhan and A. Siri watched the entire process.
