State Ready to Conduct Local Body Elections: Ramasundar Reddy

AMARAVATI: AP State Election Commission Secretary Ramasunder Reddy said, the State is ready to conduct elections once the High Court gives its verdict related to the Local Body Elections reservations issue.

The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet under the chairmanship of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, on Wednesday has taken a crucial decision to amend the Panchayat Raj Act, to usher in reforms in the elections to local bodies and has decided to conduct local body elections before March 15th.

Speaking in this context, he said that all arrangements for the local elections (corporation, municipal, ZPTC, MPTC, gram panchayat elections) have been completed. "We are ready to conduct local elections and municipal elections through the ballot paper system," he said. The Secretary said that 15,732 ballot boxes were ready and another 13, 227 ballot boxes were brought from the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

He said that 1,18,959 ballot boxes were ready at present and 40 thousand ballot boxes were being issued by the state of Telangana state. Elaborating further he said that pink color ballot paper would be used for the Sarpanch and the MPTC elections,and white colour ballot paper for the Municipality, ZPTC and the Ward members polls.

Unlike political parties, free symbols will be used for the Panchayath elections, he said. Exuding confidence, the State Election Commission Secretary said that, "we are ready with the necessary machinery required for conducting elections in the 13 districts of the state AP."

The Andhra Pradesh High Court has reserved its judgment on the petition filed by B Pratap Reddy and others challenging the reservation of seats in local body elections. Lawyers of the petitioners and government put forth their arguments before the bench constituting Chief Justice Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari and Nainala Jayasurya and the decision is awaited.

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