Amaravati: The opposition YSR Congress Party has taken its fight over Andhra Pradesh's urban local body elections to the Supreme Court, alleging that its candidates were attacked and stopped from filing nominations.
The party's special leave petition challenges the Andhra Pradesh High Court's October 18 order refusing to extend the nomination deadline, which ended the same day. A vacation bench of Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana will hear the plea on October 21, which is also the last date for withdrawal of candidature. Polling is scheduled for October 28.
YSRCP general secretary L. Appi Reddy filed the petition. The party says it told the court about alleged violence in Punganur, Rayachoti, Kadapa and Tirupati during the nomination process. In Kadapa, nomination papers were allegedly snatched and torn; in the Tirupati Municipal Corporation, nine of its candidates were allegedly prevented from filing papers. The party has sought an extension of the nomination period, police protection for candidates, additional nomination centres with videography, and a stay on unopposed declarations.
Party state coordinator Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy said attacks and criminal cases would not force the YSRCP out of the contest, and demanded an inquiry by a sitting High Court judge into an alleged police firing in Pulivendula. He claimed the TDP-led coalition government was "preventing nominations, coercing withdrawals and engineering rejections" before celebrating unopposed victories, and said the Preventive Detention Act was invoked against a Dalit leader in Duggirala.
The party has also petitioned the State Election Commissioner, seeking the reopening of nominations or postponement of polls in 22 urban local bodies. It said its candidates could file papers in only 321 of 809 wards in those bodies.
The ruling TDP rejected the allegations, saying on social media that the YSRCP's agenda was "rowdyism" and that it had trusted "rowdies, thugs and criminals".