Pumped up by massive victories in the first phase, YSRC legislators and constituency in-charges are confident of repeating their success as 2,786 panchayats in Andhra Pradesh went to polls in the second phase on Saturday. The voting will take place between 6:30 am and 3:30 pm, while counting will begin from 4 pm.

Principal Secretary (Panchayat Raj and Rural Development department) Gopal Krishna Dwivedi said. polling will be held to elect 2,786 village sarpanches and 20,817 ward members. YSRC claimed that its supporters have won nearly 82 per cent of seats in the first phase and will bag nearly 90 per cent seats in subsequent phases.

Informing that 29,304 polling stations have been identified for the second phase of polling, Dwivedi, in a release on Friday, said 5,480 of them were identified as sensitive and 4,181 as hyper-sensitive booths.

Although the notification has been issued for the conduct of elections to 3,328 sarpanch posts, 539 villages have elected their sarpanches unanimously, leaving the contest open only for 2,786 posts, a Times of India report stated. About 7,507 candidates are in the fray for village sarpanch posts. Similarly, 44,876 candidates are in the race for 20,817 ward member posts. Interestingly, no nominations were filed in one village in Nellore, Kurnool and Srikakulam districts, prompting the SEC to reschedule the elections in these villages.

Stating that necessary measures for polling personnel and voters are in place in view of Covid-19, an official said that PPE would be given to Covid-positive people. “All Covid-positive patients will be allowed to vote in the last hour of polling. Separate arrangements are made for women polling personnel. Necessary arrangements are in place to handle any untoward incident during the polling time in coordination with the police department,” he said. The panchayat polls began from February 9 and would go on till February 21.