Heavy Security Arranged In Kadapa

The by-elections for the Kadapa Lok Sabha seat and the Pulivendula Assembly seat are being considered the final battle for the political parties involved - the Congress, YSR Congress Party and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) - to prove their worth.

None of the contestants left any stone unturned to woo voters, and to buy their votes. The leaders' abundant treasuries made many peasants rich during the period of campaigning. Cash, sarees, liquor and food packets were generously doled out, and the locals happily exploited the situation.

The members of the parties levied charges aplenty at each other, hit both above and below the belt, foul-mouthed each other, and even physically fought it out.

With the end of the campaigning at 5pm on Friday evening, the work of the Election Commission began.

Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwar Lal and DGP Aravinda Rao convened a meeting on Saturday morning to discuss the issue of arranging security for May 8th, the day of the polls.

Emerging from the meeting, the DGP informed the media that around 15,000 police personnel were employed to maintain peace and order in the volatile district on the polling day. He also revealed that closed circuit cameras were fitted in all the 1,512 polling booths across the district.

More than 3 lakh people in Kadapa will exercise their voting rights tomorrow, and the fate of the political parties concerned is literally in their hands. The people of Kadapa will decide the turn that the state's political scene will take after the votes are counted on May 13th.