Voting underway for Andhra Pradesh MPTC, ZPTC elections

Krishna (Andhra Pradesh) [India], April 8 (ANI): Polling for Zilla Parishat Territorial Constituencies (ZPTC) and Mandal Parishat Territorial Constituencies (MPTC) in Andhra Pradesh are underway.
Elections are being held for 515 ZPTC seats and 7220 MPTC in the state from 7 am to 5 pm.
In 660 ZPTC, elections are being held for 515 ZPTC seats and 2058 candidates are in the fray. Elections are not being held for 8 seats for different reasons and elections are not being held for 11 seats as candidates of different political parties in the fray have died since March 2020 when the election notification was originally issued.
In 10047 MPTC seats in the state, elections are being held for 7220 seats and as many as 18782 candidates are in the fray. Elections are not being held for 375 seats for different reasons and 2371 seats are unanimously elected. Elections are not being held for 81 seats as candidates of different political parties in the fray have died since March 2020.
As many as 27751 polling stations are arranged in all 13 districts across the state. 6492 of them are identified as sensitive polling stations, 6314 are hyper-sensitive polling stations and 247 are Naxal affected polling stations.
An adequate police force is deployed for the conduct of elections without any untoward incidents.
Earlier, the election was postponed citing the COVID conditions as the reason.
The State Election Commission (SEC) has announced that the election will be conducted on April 8 and counting would be conducted on April 10.
However political parties JanaSena Party (JSP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) have filed petitions in the High Court demanding fresh notification and fresh dates of the election with at least 4 weeks gap for model code of conduct.
The High Court on April 6 issued interim orders staying the elections. The SEC and state government have filed the petition in the division bench of the High Court against the stay order.
The High Court division bench on April 7 quashed the stay order, allowed for conduct of the election but ordered not to hold counting of votes until further orders. (ANI)