Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) Andhra Pradesh coordinator Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy on Wednesday welcomed the Supreme Court's intervention in Andhra Pradesh's local elections and demanded that the State Election Commission exercise its powers, protect candidates and remove officials serving the ruling party, according to a party press release reported by ANI.
Source: ANI via LatestLY
Sajjala alleged 76 incidents across 11 districts during ZPTC and MPTC nominations, including attacks, arrests, house confinement, threats and destruction of nomination papers. He claimed YSR district accounted for 22 incidents, Palnadu 18, and Annamayya and Tirupati 11 each, with the remainder across seven districts. These are YSRCP's allegations, reported by ANI from the party's press release; they have not been independently established. The party said it would submit these developments to the Supreme Court and seek transfers or removal from election duties of responsible officials.
Earlier on Wednesday, YSRCP candidates were allegedly attacked and their nomination papers snatched in Macherla in Palnadu district, while former Deputy Chief Minister K. Narayana Swamy was allegedly attacked near the Zilla Parishad Chairman's office in Chittoor, ANI reported in a separate story carried by Devdiscourse and LatestLY. The party alleged TDP cadres carried out both attacks — an allegation the TDP had not responded to in those reports.
Source: ANI via Devdiscourse
The Supreme Court's vacation bench of Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana had earlier directed the Andhra Pradesh State Election Commission to decide by October 22 on extending nomination deadlines wherever candidates were allegedly prevented from filing nominations, to postpone publication of the final candidates' list until October 25, and to ensure police protection and CCTV coverage at nomination centres, ANI reported. The matter is listed again on October 27.
Sajjala also claimed that municipal nomination obstruction, arbitrary rejection during scrutiny and threats forcing withdrawals were now recurring in the parishad elections, and that overlapping municipal withdrawal and parishad nomination schedules had compounded confusion, ANI reported.