Elections for 12 municipal corporations and 71 municipalities are currently underway in Andhra Pradesh.
Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan was one of the many who cast his vote today in the ongoing municipal elections. Harichandan and his wife went to the polling booth at the C V Reddy Government High School in Vijayawada to vote.
Speaking on the occasion, the governor said that it was very important for all the people in a democracy to utilise their franchise, and urged the people of AP to vote in the municipal elections. He added that voting was an important way of bringing change in society.
JSP founder Pawan Kalyan also exercised his franchise today.
Reports say that a turnout of 56.01% was recorded in Visakhapatnam till 5:00 pm while the East Godavari district's final voter turnout hit a high 75.93%.
The elections led to much tension among and within the political parties in the state. The party most affected by this was the TDP. An
ugly fallout between several TDP leaders and MP Kesineni Nani even made public the burgeoning fissures within the party.
It was all a result of the yellow party's top brass decision to field Nani's daughter Swetha as its mayoral candidate for the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation elections. The decision caused former TDP MLA Bonda Maheswara Rao and several other party leaders to launch an attack on the MP. They alleged that Nani had been creating rifts within the TDP to make way for his daughter, and that while the other leaders were working towards electoral success and the development of the party, Nani was only working to grab posts and capture power.