Municipal polls in Andhra Pradesh on March 30

Ahead of the Lok Sabha and the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections, municipal elections would be held in the state on March 30.

The outcome of the elections to municipalities and municipal corporations, to be held on the party basis, could be a pointer to the public mood ahead of the general election in the state that is set to be bifurcated, and has seen much turbulence in the recent months.

Andhra Pradesh Election Commissioner P Ramakant Reddy today announced the programme for elections to 10 municipal corporations and 146 municipalities in the state. The nominations can be filed from March 10 to 13 for municipal corporations and March 10 to 14 for municipalities.  The scrutiny of nominations would take place on March 15; March 18 is the last date for withdrawal.

The polling would take place on March 30 from 7 AM to 5 AM and counting of votes on April 2. The total number of eligible voters is about one crore. There would be 9,015 polling stations. The model code of conduct comes into force immediately with today's announcement, Reddy said.

The 10 municipal corporations are Ramagundam (SC-Gen), Eluru (BC-woman), Chittoor (BC-woman), Kadapa (BC-Gen), Nellore (BC-Gen), Rajahmundry (Gen-woman), Nizamabad (Gen-woman),  Anantapur (Gen-woman), Vijayawada (unreserved) and Karimnagar (unreserved).

The elections to Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, however, would be held later this year.