TDP’s local polls needed 72 wards reopened
The Supreme Court paused the candidate list, and Andhra’s election regulator moved polling for all 100 urban local bodies.
The election schedule was revised after nominations reopened in 72 wards.
The TDP government’s claim of a routine local-body election process did not survive contact with the Supreme Court. On October 21, the court intervened after the YSR Congress Party alleged that candidates had faced threats, violence and obstruction while filing nominations. It did not declare every allegation proved. It found enough material to stop the process from proceeding as though nothing had happened.
The court said, “Free and fair elections are a basic structure of the Constitution,” and held that filing nominations without hindrance is part of that process. It directed the Andhra Pradesh State Election Commission to defer publication of the final candidate list, examine representations and electronic evidence, and consider extending nominations where candidates were unable to file because of law-and-order conditions. The Director General of Police was told to provide security and CCTV coverage at nomination centres. (Supreme Court order)
The SEC then reopened nominations in 72 wards across four urban local bodies: all 32 wards in Mydukur, 11 in Rajampet, 11 in Kadapa and 18 in Tirupati. The fresh window ran on October 23 and 24, with filing also permitted at specified collectorate premises. Polling for all 100 urban local bodies was pushed from October 28 to November 1, with counting moved to November 3. (Report on 72 wards; revised schedule)
The SEC’s wording matters: fresh nominations were allowed in specific sensitive wards where obstruction was legally established. That is not proof of every YSRCP allegation. It is, however, proof that Andhra’s election machinery found the original process defective enough to reopen part of it. A government confident in its election would not need the Supreme Court and 72 do-overs to explain how everything was perfectly normal.