The first phase of the nomination process for the 169 gram panchayats in 12 mandals of Kadiri Revenue Sub-Division ended on a peaceful note with police keeping a keen watch on proceedings at all Mandal Development Offices where the nomination papers were received till 5 p.m.
One of the youngest sarpanch aspirants is Anjali Bai (23), an MBA student hailing from Peddaballi Thanda in Puttaparthi mandal who filed her nomination papers on Sunday afternoon. She told reporters that it is her dream to usher in development in her village and hoped that people would vote for her.
At Kondakinda Thanda in Nallamada mandal, Dungavath Parvathi was the lone candidate to file a nomination for the sarpanch post. This thanda was made a panchayat recently and this is the first election there. Leaders of all political parties agreed to support Ms. Parvathi. Her ‘unanimous’ election victory will however be formally declared by the Returning Officer only after scrutiny of the papers.
The Mudigubba police on Sunday confiscated ₹2 lakh from a person identified as Kullayi Naik, supposed to be a sarpanch candidate for Nallamada panchayat supported by the YSR Congress Party. The police unearthed the cash in large amounts and the person was unable to give a proper explanation for it.
On instructions from Superintendent of Police B. Satya Yesu Babu, police began checking vehicles at Mudigubba and chanced upon this cash bag. The SP, meanwhile, went round the centres where nominations were being accepted in Kadiri and inquired from Returning Officer Maruthi Prasad about the process of accepting nominations and their safekeeping.