Polling Peaceful Despite Standoff in Disputed Kotia Villages
Similarly 536 out of 1130 voted from Pattuchennuru registering a poll percentage of 47.43 percent and 216 out of 509 voted from Paguluchennur recording a poll percentage of 42.43 percent.
Visakhapatnam: Polling went off peacefully in disputed Kotia villages under Salur mandal in Parvathipuram Manyam district despite a standoff between Odisha and Andhra Pradesh officials on Thursday.
Polling was conducted in Sarika village where the polling station for all the disputed villages was set up by the district election officials.
According to tahsildar of Salur Suresh Mamidipalli, 398 people out of 1260 cast their vote for ZPTC and MPTC of Nerallavalasa at the Sarika polling station registering a polling percentage of 31.58 percent which was only 17 percent in 2021 elections.
Similarly 536 out of 1130 voted from Pattuchennuru registering a poll percentage of 47.43 percent and 216 out of 509 voted from Paguluchennur recording a poll percentage of 42.43 percent.
``There was no incident anywhere in the disputed villages and the voting process went off peacefully despite the presence of the Odisha leaders,’’ the tahsildar said.
It may be recalled that on Wednesday 500 political workers led by former Koraput MP Jheenu Hikaka and former MLA Preetam Padhi leaders descended in Nerellavalasa village where the AP officials set up the polling station and asked the people not to participate in the elections conducted by AP government.
Later in the evening, joint collector of Manyam district R Vaishali, returning officer K Ramana Murthy and other officials tried to visit the village but they were stopped by Odisha leaders. Their request for conducting elections was also turned down.
As a result, the AP officials decided to shift the polling station to Sarika village and the joint collector asked the returning officer Ramana Murthy to organize the polling station. The joint collector also cancelled the flag march by 50 police personnel to deescalate the situation.
