VIJAYAWADA: Elections in 14 municipal divisions held in the city were peaceful, barring stray incidents on Friday. The police took into preventive custody former MLA K Subba Raju, former corporator P. Gowtham Reddy and city Congress president Pyla Sominaidu, when they were found moving in the areas where elections were being held. They were detained for a while in V Town Police Station and released later.

An average polling percentage of 50.64 was registered in the 14 divisions today. The poll percentage recorded in the elections held on September 24 was 43.83 in the 45 divisions.

Polling went on at a snail's pace in most of the divisions in the morning. Curfew-like atmosphere prevailed in areas surrounding some polling stations.

Police in action

Assistant Commissioner of Police (central) M Satyanarayana pitched camp at the beginning of Ajitsinghnagar flyover and prevented leaders of various parties when they tried to go into divisions in which elections were conducted. Polling did not cross the 12 per cent-mark in the first two hours, in 10 of the 14 divisions.

Voters seemed unenthusiastic at Gunadala Boarding School polling station, for they had only one contestant in the fray. Congress candidate Venkata Satyanarayana was the only candidate to remain in the fray with the TDP nominee bowing out. Large groups of voters, most of them women, picked their way through puddles of flood water to reach the polling booth to cast their votes in this division.

The CPI candidate in 49th division, Donepudi Sankar, told newspersons that polling was very slow, as it was, and the heavy police presence was keeping voters away. There were, however, long queues at Care and Share VMC School in New Rajarajeswaripet by noon.

Festive atmosphere

The atmosphere was festive in the rest of the relocated colony with children playing in the streets and adults standing around in small groups to chat.

A sudden spurt in the pace of polling was noticed in the polling stations of the 55th division in the afternoon. But polling was disrupted for a while when the electronic voting machine did not work properly in booth number 4 of the division.

The highest polling percentage of 63.37 was recorded in the 59th division where CPI (M) candidate Kopparapu Sridevi and TDP candidate Palagani Sunitha battled it out.

Keen contest

There was a keen contest between CPI candidate Thammina Durga, TDP candidate Gogula Ramana Rao and Congress rebel Chintha Simhachalam in the 54th division where polling percentage of 54.37 was recorded.

The manners of the policemen on duty were less cavalier compared to what it was on Saturday.

Several of them were polite and helpful to the voters. "I was surprised when the policemen requested us to move instead of ordering us," said a woman voter in 27th division.

But, the TDP and the Congress alleged that the police were trying to protect the interests of their rivals.

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