Andhra rural poll nominations close amid stone-pelting and fasts, YSRCP turns to High Court

Filing of nominations for Andhra Pradesh’s mandal and district council elections closed on Friday the way it had opened, with stone-pelting, a torched car, hunger strikes and a stream of complaints from both the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the opposition YSR Congress Party (YSRCP).

The polls to Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (MPTCs) and Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs) are due on 3 November. The YSRCP says many of its candidates never reached the counter, and it has asked the Andhra Pradesh High Court and the State Election Commission (SEC) to protect them and extend the deadline. Neither had ruled on the requests by Friday night.

A day of clashes

The worst trouble was in Palnadu district. At Rajupalem, stones thrown at YSRCP supporters left a party worker seriously injured and damaged a party car, and supporters then blocked the Addanki-Narakattapalli highway. In Narasaraopet, 45 YSRCP candidates sat on a fast, saying they had been kept from filing. Former MLA Gopireddy Srinivas Reddy began an indefinite hunger strike and demanded that the nominations be accepted under his supervision. He accused TDP leaders of blocking candidates and of filing bogus papers in their names.

There were clashes and stone-pelting at Ellanuru and Pedda Vaduguru in Anantapur district, where police used a lathi-charge, and at the Kadapa Zilla Parishad nomination centre. In Kuravapalli in Tirupati district, a car belonging to TDP leader Muttam Prabhakar was set on fire. At Jammalamadugu, unidentified men attacked the car of a candidate on his way to file for the Vaddirala MPTC seat.

Police kept a close hand on YSRCP leaders. Former minister Vidadala Rajini was placed under house arrest in Chilakaluripet, and notices barring rallies and meetings were served at the Pulivendula home of YSRCP MP Avinash Reddy. In Punganur, police booked former Chittoor MP Reddappa and 177 others on a complaint from TDP leader Narayanaswamy; 15 people were arrested and remanded. In Srikalahasti, YSRCP candidates filed under heavy police security, while at Yerragondapalem some left without filing, saying the queue was not moving.

The TDP’s complaint

The TDP took its own case to the poll panel. Senior leader and MLC Varla Ramaiah met State Election Commissioner Anil Chandra Punetha in Vijayawada with videos and newspaper clippings, and accused YSRCP workers of behaving like “rowdies”, attacking police and breaking barricades at eight places. In Macherla, he alleged, former MLA Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy led about 300 people armed with stones and sticks against the police.

Ramaiah asked for stern action and preventive arrests, and told YSRCP chief Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy to contest “not with money and muscle power” but in a “democratic and constitutional manner”. The YSRCP has not responded to the complaint.

How it got here

The rural contest follows the urban local body polls, where the YSRCP went to the Supreme Court saying its candidates in 19 bodies had been stopped from filing by force. After the court asked the SEC to examine the complaints, the commission paused the process across the urban bodies and reopened nominations in four: Mydukur, Rajampet, Tirupati Municipal Corporation and some wards of Kadapa Municipal Corporation. YSRCP candidates in Mydukur filed under police protection.

Whether the YSRCP gets the extra time it wants now rests with the High Court and the SEC.