Electioneering for second phase ends in Andhra

The electioneering for the second and final phase of polls in the state covering 20 Lok Sabha and 140 Assembly constituencies ended on Tuesday.

The second phase covers 10 districts in south coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema from where all the three potential candidates for chief ministership, YS Rajasekhara Reddy of the Congress, N Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Chiranjeevi of the Praja Rajyam Party (PRP), are contesting.

While Reddy is contesting from Pulivendula in Kadapa district, Naidu and Chiranjeevi are contesting from Kuppam and Tirupati Assembly segments respectively in Chittoor district. The PRP chief is also contesting from Palakol in West Godavari district.

As many as 26.6 million voters are expected to exercise their franchise at 30,446 polling stations to decide the electoral fortunes of 254 candidates for Lok Sabha and 1,822 candidates for Assembly elections on April 23.

Union ministers Panabaka Lakshmi and Pallam Raju, industrialists L Rajagopal, Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, SPY Reddy and Srikant Palem, cinema actors Krishnam Raju and Murali Mohan besides chief minister's son YS Jaganmohan Reddy are among the prominent persons who are in the fray for the Lok Sabha elections.

In the Assembly polls, a score of prominent Congress and TDP leaders including state ministers JC Diwakar Reddy, G Aruna Kumari, N Rajyalakshmi, N Raghuveera Reddy, K Krishna Reddy, R Chenga Reddy, M Budha Prasad, P Subash Chandra Bose and A Ramanarayana Reddy are in the fray.

As many as 76,581 electronic voting machines (EVMs) would be used and over 56,000 policemen would be deployed along with central paramilitary force and Andhra Pradesh Special Police personnel.

The officials have identified 2,993 polling stations in the state as troublesome, 4,311 as sensitive, 2,222 as hyper-sensitive and 410 as extremist-affected.