All Set For Nandyal By-Election On 23rd August

Chief Electoral Officer for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Bhanwar Lal today said that the Nandyal by-election campaign had come to an end on Monday and that the election would be conducted on Aug 23, from 7 am to 6 pm.

Addressing a press conference at the Secretariat in Hyderabad he said that all necessary arrangements had been made for the smooth conduct of the elections. As the election campaign had ended today at 6 pm, all the non-locals, ministers, MLAs and others had been asked to leave the Assembly constituency, he said. Advertisements in the media, and any kind of debates, surveys, bulk SMSs etc had been banned till 6 pm on polling day, and action would be taken if the local people violated the poll code, he said. The officials concerned had booked 368 cases so far, and Rs. 1.16 crores had been seized, Lal disclosed.

The CEO said that 255 polling booths were ready for the polling, and that voter slips had been distributed to 2,03,155 of the 2,18,858 voters in the segment. The police had made elaborate security arrangements with 6 companies of the Central Armed Forces, 8 companies of the Andhra Pradesh Special Police and 2,500 local police personnel being deployed for election. All liquor shops had been instructed to stay closed till 6 pm on August 23.

The CEO said that the day of polling had been declared as a paid holiday.