Polling is scheduled from 7 am to 5 pm on Sunday, November 1, across 92 urban local bodies in Andhra Pradesh, with nearly 9.94 million voters set to elect mayors, municipal chairpersons, corporators and ward members. Counting will take place at 138 centres on Tuesday, November 3.
The elections cover all 13 municipal corporations and 79 municipalities and nagar panchayats where contests remain. Elections in eight of the state’s 100 urban local bodies have been completed unanimously, with both chairpersons and ward members elected without a contest.
The eight urban local bodies are Piduguralla, Gurazala, Dachepalli, Darsi, Allagadda, Proddatur, Rayachoti and Kamalapuram. Chairpersons and some ward members have also been elected unanimously in nine other urban local bodies: Kanigiri, Gooty, Atmakur, Rajampet, Badvel, Mydukuru, Yerraguntla, Punganur and Nagari.
Polling will be held for all 13 mayoral posts, where 153 candidates are contesting. The municipal corporations have 922 wards, of which 118 corporator posts have been filled unanimously. Elections will therefore be held in the remaining 804 wards, with 3,073 candidates in the fray.
The municipal corporations going to the polls are Vizianagaram, Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation, Guntur, Ongole, Nellore, Anantapur, Kurnool, Kadapa, Chittoor, Vijayawada, Eluru, Machilipatnam and Tirupati. The remaining contests are spread across 79 municipalities and nagar panchayats in districts across the state.
Among the 87 chairperson posts in municipalities and nagar panchayats, 17 have been filled unanimously. Polling will be held for the remaining 70 posts, with 367 candidates contesting. Of the ward member positions in these urban local bodies, 637 have been decided unanimously, while elections will be held for the remaining 2,382 wards. A total of 6,669 candidates are contesting those seats.
The electorate includes 48,29,226 men, 51,05,345 women and 1,443 voters recorded under other categories. Together, they will vote in the 92 urban local bodies that continue to have electoral contests. The results will determine the elected leadership responsible for municipal administration in cities and towns across Andhra Pradesh.
Election authorities have identified 11,378 polling stations. Of these, 7,070 have been classified as sensitive, 4,262 as hypersensitive and 142 as critical. CCTV cameras have been installed at polling stations, with 12,666 cameras listed for monitoring the exercise.
The scale of the polling arrangements reflects the administrative spread of the election, which covers major municipal corporations as well as smaller municipalities and nagar panchayats. The next formal milestone is polling on November 1, followed by counting at 138 centres on November 3.
