As many as 331 MPTC seats and one ZPTC seat in Narasannapeta in Srikakulam are elected unanimously, while Kukkunuru and Velerupadu mandals in Khammam district abstained from filing nominations, according to State Election Commission Secretary Navin Mittal.
Addressing a press conference here at Budha Bhavan, Mittal said that the election commission so far received 5034 nominations for 1096 ZPTC seats, 52,568 nominations for 16,589 MPTC seats. He stated that they will announce the actual dates of ZPTC and MPTC elections. Elections for 21 village panchayats in Ranga Reddy and five panchayats in Visakhapatnam will be conducted on April 13.
According to information, the people of Kukkunuru and Velerupadu mandals in Khammam district filed no nominations in protest against their merger along with those seven mandals of Polavaram submergence area given to residuary state of Andhra Pradesh in the wake of bifurcation. It may be recalled that the people of these two mandals pitched their battle and warned of boycotting the polls of local bodies. The political parties urged the Election Commission to either defer the dates of these elections are put on hold their results. While the election commission declared that it was ready to conduct the elections in two phases on April 6 and 8, the issue is sub-judice as the political parties opposing the same in the wake of general elections. It is being stated that the court is likely to give its verdict soon in this regard. The elections will be held as per given schedule if the court asks the election commission to do so. Otherwise it has to make changes in accordance of the verdict to come.(NSS)
