Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh): People of the Balapam Panchayat in Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam district braved Maoist threats to finally exercise their franchise after a long gap of 15 years in the recent panchayat elections.
During the third phase of the Andhra Pradesh panchayat elections on February 17, a voter turnout of 50.47 per cent was recorded at Balapam, which is known as a Maoist bastion.
Elections were last held in the panchayat in 2006.
Elections were last held in the panchayat in 2006 In 2013, Maoists had declared that they would not allow any nominations to be filed in the panchayat. Subsequently, a notification for the polls was once again issued in January 2014, following which the sole candidate to have filed the nomination, Sinderi Karla, was unanimously elected.
However, Karla was later murdered by Maoists one month later in February.
Though the notification was issued for the Sarpanch election last year, no nomination was filed until the very last day of filing nominations. Two candidates were nominated on the last day.
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Polling was held only for the Sarpanch post, amidst heavy security deployment. Teams from the Greyhounds, state police, and CRPF were deployed in the region in the wake of the Maoists issuing warnings against holding the elections.
On election day, ASP Vidyasagar Naidu himself on rallied around the panchayat area on a two-wheeler and mobilised voters to exercise their franchise.
The tribals were made aware that the development of the panchayat would be hampered if they did not vote, and that their problems would be solved only if the panchayat had a sarpanch.
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