With a division bench of the Andhra Pradesh state high court giving a verdict in favour of the state government in connection with the elections to mandal parishad and zilla parishad elections, state election commission headed by former chief secretary Neelam Sawhney announced that counting of votes would take place on Sunday, September 19.
On the instructions from the SEC, chief secretary Adityanath Das held a meeting with all the district officials for making all arrangements for the counting of votes for the Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs) and Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (MPTCs).
Interacting with the district collectors, superintendents of police, zilla parishad chief executive officers and district panchayat officers, Das instructed that counting staff be appointed immediately and enough care be taken at the counting centres following Covid-19 protocols.
He ordered that adequate security arrangements be made at the counting centres by enforcing Section 144 of CrPC, so that there was no scope for any violent incidents.
A control room would be set up at the state panchayat raj commissioner office to monitor the process round the clock.
However, the ruling YSR Congress party is expected to make a clean sweep of the MPTC and ZPTC elections.
Out of the total number of 660 ZPTCs and 9,984 MPTCs in Andhra Pradesh, as many as 126 ZPTCs and 2,363 MPTCs were elected unanimous during the beginning of the election process in March 2020.
For the remaining ZPTCs and MPTCs, elections were held on April 8, within a week of Neelam Sawhney taking over as the new SEC.
The TDP, however, announced boycott of the elections accusing the YSRC of resorting to vandalism and violence during the unanimous election process in March 2020.
Yet, in some places, the TDP leaders defied the decision of the party leadership and contested the elections.
However, the chances of their winning any seats are bleak and in all probability, the YSRC will have a clean sweep.
