PONNUR (GUNTUR DIST): Jubilation was witnessed among the cadres of the two main political parties, the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Ponnur municipality as five candidates were elected unopposed.

According to the Municipal Commissioner, K. Venkateshwara Rao, Machavarapu Krishna Veni from the 11th ward, Baba Vali from 25th ward and M. Vijayalakshmi from the 30th ward, all of them from the TDP were declared elected unopposed.

Two Congress candidates, Zakir Hussain from the 27th ward and Yarasani Venkata Rao from the 31st ward were also elected unopposed, confining the poll battle to only to the remaining 26 municipal wards out of the total 31.

It may be recalled that ward 30 and 31 were successfully bid by the candidates in the auction conducted by the locality elders to raise money for a Ram temple in the locality.

Tense moments were witnessed in the town on Friday afternoon when TDP activists allegedly convinced the Congress candidate from the 20th ward, Kalesha Vali to withdraw from the race. Vali, despite getting the Form-B from the party chose to withdraw.

The Congress leaders rushed to the municipal office but it was too late. The election officer had already received Vali's withdrawal letter. Mild tension prevailed for some time between the activists of the two parties.

Dharna

TDP leaders led by the MLA, Dhulipalla Narendra Kumar, along with his followers staged a dharna and demanded the officials to clarify on the whole issue. Finally, they dispersed after the Commissioner clarified that withdrawal form once submitted couldn't be re-considered by the candidate.Of the 157 valid nominations received, 63 nominees have withdrawn and 94 candidates are in fray for 26 wards.

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