AP gears up for second phase LB polls

Hyderabad, July 1 (UNI) The stage is set for the second phase of the two-tier elections tomorrow to Panchayat Raj Institutions across 11 districts of Andhra Pradesh amid tight security, even as the naxalites have given a call for poll boycott.

''The election machinery is fully geared up for the polls.

Collectors and Superintendents of Police have made all arrangements.

Polling material including ballot papers have been moved to mandals from the district collectorates with full bandobust,'' State Election Commissioner G N Rao told UNI.

Helicopters were kept ready and would be used if needed to reach inaccessible villages in view of the monsoon activity, he added.

As the CPI(Maoists) gave a call for boycott of the poll, calling them a 'farce', the SEC arranged for deployment of 261 platoons of Armed Reserve Force and 81 platoons of Andhra Pradesh Special Police in 1532 extremist-infested villages, as also in 3697 sensitive and 2208 hypersensitive villages.

A confident Congress, which secured five Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency (ZPTC) seats, as also 142 Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency seats uncontested, is allied with the CPI and TRS.

The TDP, which bagged 15 MPTC seats unanimously, was contesting the polls with the CPI(M). While CPI and CPI(M) contestants were unanimously elected from four MPTCs each, TRS nominees won without contest in two MPTC seats.

An electorate of over 1.91 crore voters, including 97 lakh women would choose their representatives from 1846 candidates for 515 ZPTC seats and 21,441 contestants for 7676 MPTC seats in the second phase of polls to be conducted by 1.45 lakh polling personnel from 24,908 polling stations.

The districts going to polls are Chittoor, Guntur, Khammam, Mahbubnagar, Nellore, Nizamabad, Rangareddy, Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam, Warangal and West Godavari.

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