LB polls: Counting begins

Hyderabad, July 4 (UNI) Counting of votes polled in the violence- marred two-phase elections to Panchayatraj Bodies in Andhra Pradesh on June 28 and July two, began this morning, amidst tight security.

The counting process began in 493 counting centres under the supervision of 443 district-level officers, 22 state-level election observers and an equal number of expenditure observers with bundling of ballot papers into set of 25 each.

As many as 3972 candidates were in the fray for the 1087 Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency seats and 44,414 contestants for 15577 Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency seats.

The ruling Congress has unanimously bagged 10 ZPTC seats and 425 MPTC seats, including 114 in Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's home district of Kadapa, while the TDP won 70 MPTC seats, as the CPI got six MPTC and CPI(M) five MPTC seats without contest. The TRS won uncontested two MPTC seats, as also 48 Independents.

UNI SM KVV VA KN1026