HYDERABAD: Continuing their winning spree, the Congress-backed candidates secured a majority of sarpanch posts in the second phase of the ongoing gram panchayat elections on Sunday.
The polling passed off peacefully across the state with 46.70 lakh voters (85.86 per cent) exercising their franchise to elect 4,232 sarpanches.
The counting of votes started at 1 pm and continued till late in the night with the ruling Congress-backed candidates securing more than 2,000 sarpanch posts, according to information available till 9.30 pm.
The Congress-supported candidates, who bagged 57 per cent of sarpanch posts in 4,230 villages that went to polls in the first phase, fared even better in the second phase.
They won more than 2,000 out of 3,911 panchayats in the second phase. Though, the Congress supporters won a majority of panchayats, some of them won by a margin of just one or two voters while a few others fate was decided by the toss of a coin.
The candidates supported by Opposition BRS too won impressive number of seats in this phase, including in Devarakadra MLA Madhusudhan Reddy’s native village Damagnapur where Krishnaiah Setti emerged the winner. The pink party retained its supremacy in Siddipet and Sircilla Assembly segments. In Sircilla too, its candidates secured 20 out of 30 villages.
Meanwhile, the BJP-backed candidates won in 29 villages out of 98 villages they contested in the second phase in Karimnagar Lok Sabha segment. They stood in second place in 20 villages. In the first phase, the BJP-backed candidates won 42 villages in the Karimnagar constituency.
Ajmeera Hari, a TDP-supported candidate, was elected as sarpanch of Kamepalli, a major panchayat in Khammam district.
Peaceful voting in Agency areas of Warangal dist
WARANGAL: The second phase of the panchayat elections concluded peacefully, with hundreds of voters waiting patiently in gargantuan queues to exercise their franchise, in villages across the erstwhile Warangal district on Sunday. It may be mentioned here that police made elaborate security arrangements to prevent any untoward incidents, especially in the Agency areas of Jayashankar Bhupalpally, Mulugu and Mahbubabad districts. Mulugu SP Sudhir Ramnath Kekan and his Mahbubabad counterpart Dr P Shabarish personally visited several polling stations in the Agency areas and overseeing the polling process. District Collectors Dr Satya Sharada of Warangal, Rizwan Basha Shaik of Jangaon, Rahul Sharma of Bhupalpally, Devakar TS of Mulugu, Sneha Shabarish of Hanamkonda and Adwait Kumar Singh of Mahbubabad also visited several polling stations in their respective districts.
Mild tension in Dharoor Camp
KARIMNAGAR: The second phase of gram panchayat elections passed off peacefully in the erstwhile Karimnagar district on Sunday. However, mild tension prevailed in Dharoor Camp village in Jagtial district when a sarpanch candidate, displaying a symbol allocated to him, campaigned near a polling station. The supporters of a rival candidate objected to this, leading to a minor scuffle. But police stepped in at the right time and managed to disburse the two groups. For the record, 86.58 per cent voting was recorded in villages across Karimnagar followed by Rajanna-Sircilla (84.41%), Peddapalli (84.15%) and Jagtial (78.34%).
Voters transported from state capital
ADILABAD: In several villages across the erstwhile Adilabad district, many sarpanch candidates made arrangements for bring voters who are working or studying in and around Hyderabad to exercise their franchise in the second phase of panchayat elections on Sunday.
The candidates are believed to have not only arranged transport facilities but also borne the other expenses of the electors to lure them to vote in their favour. Meanwhile, around 180 voters of Mavala gram panchayat staged a protest as their names were missing from the voter list. The officials, however, explained that the Sy No 170, where they are living, has been merged with the Adilabad municipality and hence their names were not found in the voter list of panchayat polls.
It may be mentioned here that 30 villages elected their sarpanches unanimously with 15 panchayats preferring Congress-backed candidates, 11 of those picking BJP-supported candidates, two BRS and two independent candidates. In the second phase of elections, Mancherial district recorded 84.59 per cent voting, followed by Nirmal (82.67%), Komaram Bheem Asifabad district (84.56%) and Adilabad (86.68%).
Cold weather fails to dampen voters’ spirit
NIZAMABAD: The prevailing cold weather failed to dampen the enthusiasm of electors as more than 76 per cent and 70 per cent voter turnout was witnessed in Nizamabad and Kamareddy districts on Sunday. Though the poll process was slow in the morning, it picked up pace once the voters started stepping out to exercise their franchise as the day progressed.
In Nizamabad, District Collector T Vinay Krishna Reddy visited several polling stations in Mogpal, Makloor, Gundaram, Dichpally, Ghanpur and Gannaram villages to inspect the polling process. Nizamabad Police Commissioner P Sai Chaitanya also inspected several polling stations and supervised security arrangements, especially in a few sensitive centres where additional forces were deployed. Similarly Kamareddy, District Collector Ashish Sangwan and Superintendent of Police Rajesh Chandra inspected the polling stations in several villages.
Highlights
Congress rebel Mahender won in MLA M Yasaswini Reddy’s native village Cherlapalem
The officials decided the winner by toss in Dubba Tanda in Medak district after Congress and BRS supporters got 182 votes each. Congress supporter K Sunitha won the seat
Sarpanch candidate Savitabai fell unconscious as she could not bear the tension during the counting at Arjun Naik Tanda in Sangareddy district. She was shifted to Zaheerabad hospital
in Ghanasyamdas Nagar in Peddpalli district, Rama defeated her mother-in-law Narasamma
Congress-backed Upendramma elected as Mangapuram sarpanch in Vemulapalli mandal of Nalgonda by the toss of coin
Chinnachintakunta result was put on hold in Mahbubnagar district as two candidates got equal number of votes in the recounting too
In Pipadpalli village of Sangareddy district, Chalki Raju, backed by the Congress, won by nine votes. Raju died by suicide on December 8, alleging that his close aides were not supporting him in the elections