A total number of 6,232 nominations were filed for sarpanch posts and 26,830 for village panchayat ward member posts in 1,020 villages across 56 mandals of the district.
It looks like the main political parties are arriving at secret understandings for sharing the sarpanch and ward member posts at various places.
The Congress party has supported TDP candidate M Rattamma for the Potluru village sarpanch post in Kondepi mandal. Interestingly, local Congress MLA GV Seshu attended the programme that marked the filing of the nomination.
In another such incident, the Congress supported TDP candidate Bellam Jayant Babu for sarpanch post at Tangutur as TDP had offered ward member posts to the Congress party.
Similar pacts among TDP-Congress-YSRC are being forged in various village panchayats. The TDP, Congress and YSRC are arduously trying to grab sarpanch and wards in the Tangutur mandal as TDP district president Damacharla Janardhan hails from the mandal.
MLC and former Congress district president Pothula Rama Rao and MLC and YSRC state spokesperson Jupudi Prabhakara Rao also belong to the same mandal.
As many as 251 nominations were filed for 25 sarpanch posts and 679 for ward member posts in Pamuru mandal of the district. Similarly, 205 nominations were filed for 23 sarpanch posts in CS Puram mandal.
Chirala MLA and District Congress Committee president Amanchi Krishnamohan expressed the confidence that their party supporters would win panchayat elections in the district due to the welfare schemes and developmental activities of the Congress government. Meanwhile, TDP district president Janardhan claimed that the people were against the Congress and would teach a fitting lesson to the Congress party by electing the TDP supporters.
Meanwhile, YSRC district president, Nukasani Balaji, alleged that TDP and Congress had colluded in the ongoing panchayat elections to defeat YSRC supporters. He claimed that the rural people were with YSRC and expressed the hope that the party’s supporters would win the panchayat elections in all the 56 mandals of the district.