AP May 13: Polling began in Andhra Pradesh on Monday with elections to the 175-member state assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats. Long queues formed at some polling stations before the polls opened at 7pm. More than 4.14 crore voters are eligible to cast their votes in 46,389 polling stations. They will decide the political fate of 2,841 candidates. Chief Minister and YSR Congress Party President Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, former Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) President N. Chandrababu Naidu, Jana Sena chief and actor Pawan Kalyan are among the 2,387 candidates vying for 175 parliamentary seats. . There are 454 contestants contesting for the 25th Lok Sabha. Among the prominent names are former Union minister and BJP president D. Purandeswari, state Council president Y.S. As part of the general arrangements, around 5.26 lakh personnel, including 1.14 lakh police personnel, have been deployed to ensure a peaceful and smooth election campaign.
Polling for 169 assembly constituencies will be held from 7 am to 6 pm. In the Left Wing (LWE)-affiliated Araku, Paderu and Rampachodavaram constituencies, polling will end at 4 pm. Currently, on the three areas affected by LWE, namely Palakonda, Kurupam and Salur, it ends at 17.00 WIB. In the 2019 election, the state’s vote share has reached 79.84%. Officials say the vote will increase this time to 83%. Of the 46,389 polling stations, 12,438 were declared sensitive.
The election authorities have arranged live broadcasting of the election process in 34,651 polling stations. 1.6 million Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) have been deployed. As part of the security arrangements, more than 295 companies of the main forces have been released, in addition to 1,140,000 policemen. Among the Lok Sabha constituencies, Visakhapatnam has the most candidates (33). Nandyal has 31 candidates, Guntur has 30 candidates. There are only twelve candidates in the Rajahmundry Lok Sabha constituency. In the assembly segment Tirupati has the most number of candidates, followed by Mangalagiri with 40.
There are only six candidates for Chodavaram. The state is witnessing a direct fight between the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and the NDA comprising TDP, Jana Sena and BJP. In 2019, YSRCP wrested 151 assembly seats from TDP. TDP won 23 seats, Jana Sena Party (JSP) won 1 seat. YSRCP also won 22 Lok Sabha seats while TDP bagged the remaining 3 seats.
