VIJAYAWADA: All arrangements are in place for the counting of votes for the elections to municipalities and municipal corporations. Counting will commence at 8 am in all 70 municipalities and 11 corporations. Though the elections were held for 12 Municipal Corporations and 71 municipalities, following the directions of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, counting will not be done for Eluru Municipal Corporation and Chilakaluripet municipality.
Elections to the urban local bodies were held on March 10.Elaborate security arrangements have been made and Section 144 was enforced at the counting centres. As the elections were held on ballot papers, officials said the results would come out only after noon. The results of the divisions and wards in Corporations and municipalities, which witnessed less percentage of polling, are expected to come out first.
The YSRC exuded confidence of sweeping all the municipal corporations and municipalities and it will better its performance in elections held to gram panchayats. The Opposition TDP hopes that it will put up a decent performance in the elections.
Though elections were held to 12 Municipal corporations, both the parties are keen on winning Guntur, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam municipal corporations. For the YSRC, winning the three corporations is crucial as it is considered a mandate to its three-capital proposal. If it wins the Guntur and Vijayawada corporations, the party leaders said, it is an approval of the people of the two cities in the Amaravati capital region to its proposal to have the legislative capital in Visakhapatnam.