40 lakh to cast votes in Guntur

GUNTUR:  Political scenario in Guntur district is gaining steam after the State government announced the schedule for the local body elections. The State Election Commission will conduct elections to 57 Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency (ZPTC), 862 Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency (MPTC), 14 municipalities and 1,021 sarpanch posts in the district.  

There are 40,24,514 voters in the district. Of which, 19,62,014 are men, 20,55,334 women, 477 transgenders and remaining 6,689 are service voters. The government has reserved the Zilla Parishad chairman post for woman from Scheduled Caste. A total of 29 ZPTC seats are reserved for women out of 57 seats in the district. In January, the government had announced the ZP chairman post to woman from general category. But the decision was changed as per the direction of the High Court and the seat was reserved for woman from Scheduled Caste.

Guntur district collector I Samuel Anand Kumar said around 13,000 officials will conduct the local body elections in the district. He directed the officials to take all necessary measures for smooth conduct of the elections.Collector Anand Kumar directed officials concerned to make route plan to transport election material in time to all polling stations in the district. He asked the officials to identify distribution centres, counting centres and reception centres in 57 mandal headquarters of the district. Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Parishad chairman J Veeranjaneyulu welcomed the government’s decision and lamented that the development of villages was completely restrained for the past years due to lack of local bodies. He also demanded to conduct elections in new panchayats.