VIJAYAWADA: The ruling YSRC has won the majority of the wards in the urban local bodies which witnessed unanimous elections. After the last day of withdrawal of nominations on Wednesday, the State Election Commission (SEC) on Thursday announced that out of 2,794 wards in the 12 municipal corporations and 75 municipalities, 578 candidates were elected unanimously.
The ruling YSRC bagged the lion’s share by winning 570 seats and the Opposition TDP came a distant second with five. Independents won two seats unanimously and the BJP one.It was a clean sweep for the YSRC in four municipalities. The ruling party won 33 wards each in Pulivendula and Piduguralla municipalities, 31 each in Macherla and Punganur and Rayachoti municipalities, unanimously.
The party is all set to win comfortably in several other municipalities like Dhone and Naidupet as its candidates were elected unanimously in the majority of the wards. Similar is the case with the Chittoor Municipal Corporation.Meanwhile, the State Election Commission (SEC) suspended the election process of Ward No 7 of the Tirupati Municipal Corporation taking serious note of the withdrawal of nomination filed for candidate M Vijaya Lakshmi through a forged notice.
In a release issued on Thursday, the SEC said the incident of a forged notice of withdrawal was submitted in respect of a candidate, M Vijaya Lakshmi, in ward No. 7 of the Tirupati Municipal Corporation on Wednesday.“The candidate has made a complaint with the police on the incident. The Commission viewed it very seriously and ordered a thorough probe into the matter,’’ the SEC said and ordered suspension of the election process to the ward with immediate effect. The Commission will issue instructions separately later for the election of the ward after completion of a detailed enquiry, the SEC said.The SEC further said that the Secretary and Joint Secretary of the Commission will personally look into the complaints with the Commission.