Repoll in Rompicherla booths put off

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, JULY 14. Repoll was held today in 48 booths in eight of 11 districts covered by the first phase of the panchayat elections. The process was peaceful and incident-free.

In a last-minute decision, the State Election Commission deferred the exercise for all the eight polling stations in Rompicherla mandal of Guntur district as tension continued in the area even after heavy deployment of the police force. Out of the eight booths, six are located at Rompicherla itself, which witnessed police firing resulting in a death in the first phase of polling and the rest of the two at Veeravatnam. Mr. D. R. Garg, SEC Secretary, said that the repoll for these stations would be held on Monday - from 7.00 am to 5.00 pm. There was absolutely no incident at other stations in Chittoor, Guntur, Mahabubnagar, Nellore, Ranga Reddy, Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam and Warangal where the repoll was held.

According to reports reaching the control room at the SEC, the voting crossed 60 per cent at most of the booths by afternoon and final percentage revolved around 65-70.

Mr. Garg said arrangements had been made for the second phase of polling on Sunday in 19,119 polling stations in the districts of Adilabad, Anantapur, Cuddapah, East Godavari, Karimnagar, Krishna, Kurnool, Medak, Nalgonda, Prakasam and Vizianagaram.

Meanwhile, the State Election Commission received the requisitioned report from the Guntur District Collector on the allegations made by Congress(I) leaders that the Technical Education Minister, Mr. A. Rajendra Prasad, indulged in electoral malpractices in the Vemuru area of the district on the polling day.

The report, according to Mr. Garg, exonerated the Minister stating that the charge was `baseless.'

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Section  : Southern States
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