Hyderabad: Telugu Desam won a majority of the mayor and municipal chairperson posts in the elections held in AP on Thursday. Four women were elected as mayors in the corporations of Vijayawada, Eluru, Rajahmundry, Chittoor and Anantapur bagged by the TD.
YSRC was restricted to the two corporations of Nellore and Kadapa. Elections were held for seven municipal corporations. Of the 92 municipalities, TD won 74, YSRC 15 and Congress 1. Several municipalities in which the YSRC had won majority were bagged by the TD through defections. However, TD efforts failed in Nuzivid, Gudivada and Jaggaihpet municipalities of Krishna district which were bagged by the YSRC. MLAs and MPs also took part in voting in several urban bodies, where both the parties bagged equal numbers of wards. The Kadapa corporation polls was important for the YSRC as the party was able to win by preventing defections.
YSRC won the Yerraguntla municipality after high drama. Police opened fire in the air to disperse TD and YSRC activists who pelted stones at each other in Jammalamad-ugu. The election has been postponed to Friday.
Two time corporator of Vijayawada, Koneru Sridhar was elected mayor of Vijayawada while Sheik Noorjahan became the mayor of Anantapur. M. Swaroopa was elected Anantapur mayor and Katari Anuradha was elected mayor of Chittoor. P. Rajani Sesha Sai became the mayor of Rajahmundry. Mr Abdul Azeez became the mayor of Nellore and K. Suresh Babu of Kadapa.
TD won Proddutur, Mydukuru and Badvel in Kadapa while YSRC won Yerraguntla and Rayachoti. TD won the Hindupur municipality after 27 years. TD swept the polls in north Andhra and the two Godavari districts. YSRC managed to win in Kadapa, Kurnool, Chittoor, Krishna and Nellore.
Mayoral and municipal chairperson elections witnessed protests and clashes in some districts. In Nellore, TD staged a dharna in front of the collector demanding secret ballot.
In Guntur, YSRC bagged only the Tadepalli municipality. The candidates of CPI and BJP were elected chairman and vice-chairman in Vinukonda municipality after becoming allies in the recent election.
Earlier in the day, YSRC informed the Election Commission that since the notification for municipal elections there has been a spurt in kidnapping and threatening MPPs in a bid to ensure that the TD gained the upper hand. TD leaders alleged that their councilor Jani was kidnapped in Jammalamadugu. In Vizainagaram, Bobbili YSRC councillors attacked their party councillor Parvathy alleging that she voted for the TD.
YSRC leader Vasireddy Padma said that the TD had resorted to malpractices in the elections of municipal chiefs. She asked the government why it had postponed the election to Friday at Jammalamadugu despite having quorum.
In Yerraguntla, YSRCP bagged 18 seats while TD got two seats. But, the ruling party lured eight YSRC councilors, leaving officials with no option but to decide the chairperson with a toss.
