ANANTAPUR: Gram panchayat elections in two villages of the district where people have boycotted the scheduled polling will be conducted on August 20. A fresh notification will be issued on August 9.

According to District Panchayat Officer P. Nagaraju a report on the boycott of polling and proposal for fresh elections had been sent to the State Election Commission on August 6 and the latter's approval came on Monday.

It may be mentioned here that people of Kuchivaripalli in Yallanur mandal boycotted the elections fearing feuds in the village, as two brothers contested for the sarpanch post. The villagers suspected trouble as the brothers owed allegiance to J.C. Diwakar Reddy and K. Suryapratap Reddy groups.

It is reliably learnt that the candidate owing allegiance to Diwakar Reddy group was threatened by the rival group if he failed to withdraw from the contest unofficially, as the date for withdrawals was long over in the last week of July.

Meanwhile, polling was boycotted in Govindampalli of Bukkaraya Samudram mandal due to confusion over election symbols of two contestants. The candidates had forgotten their election symbol and canvassed with the rivals' symbols. They had realised the mistake only after they got the model ballot papers on Saturday.

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