Andhra Pradesh Civic Polls 2026: Pulivendula Repoll, Jagan's Allegations and the 3 November Count, Explained

Andhra Pradesh held urban local body elections on Sunday, 1 November 2026. The Hindu reported that polling covered 13 municipal corporations and 79 municipalities and nagar panchayats, 92 bodies in all, and ended at 5 p.m. without major law and order problems, barring incidents of stone-pelting by cadres of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and the torching of several vehicles in Pulivendula.

IANS reported that the same poll was for ward members and for the mayors of 13 municipal corporations and the chairpersons of 70 municipalities. The Times of India describes the mayoral and chairperson fights as direct contests. The Hindu's counting story and IANS are describing the same 92 bodies in different cuts. The reports do not say how many chairperson seats inside the 79 municipalities and nagar panchayats were uncontested.

The State Election Commission (SEC) has since published a final Sunday turnout of 62.16 per cent. It has also taken a narrower decision than YSRCP president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy asked for: a repoll on Monday, 2 November, at 13 polling stations in seven urban local bodies, including four in Pulivendula. Counting of all 92 bodies is scheduled from 8 a.m. on Tuesday, 3 November. This article was published before that start. No result had been declared.

The 60-second version

• What was at stake: Ward members across 92 urban local bodies, plus direct contests for 13 mayors and, on IANS's count, chairpersons of 70 municipalities. Polling day was Sunday, 1 November 2026, generally until 5 p.m.
• Sunday turnout: 48.03 per cent at 3 p.m. (The Hindu, citing the SEC). IANS later reported 60.96 per cent, or 59,06,255 of 96,89,061 voters. On Monday evening the SEC's final Sunday figure, reported by The Hindu and Deccan Chronicle, was 62.16 per cent: 60,22,411 of 96,89,061.
• Pulivendula: Jagan says YSRCP agents were kept out of 70 of 80 booths. He sat in protest, asked for a repoll in every booth, and left without voting. Collector Dr Sreedhar Cherukuri says 47 agents were registered before 7 a.m. and that none was stopped from working.
• What the SEC did: It declared the poll void at 13 stations, including Pulivendula wards 1, 3, 7 and 8, and ordered a fresh poll on 2 November, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Jagan called the four-booth Pulivendula repoll an eyewash and said the YSRCP will go to court.
• Repoll turnout: Deccan Chronicle put the close at 60.64 per cent. Disha Daily said the SEC counted 6,041 voters out of 9,890 and headlined 62.16 per cent. That division is 61.08 per cent, so the headline and the count in that story do not agree. The booth sheet is unsettled in the copies read here.
• Count: 8 a.m., 3 November, at 138 centres, for 3,186 wards, with 47,817 counting staff. Results follow the count. They were not out at publication.

What voters were choosing

The Hindu's account of polling day, updated at 11:37 p.m. on 1 November, said elections to the 13 corporations and 79 municipalities and nagar panchayats ended at 5 p.m. State Election Commissioner Anil Chandra Punetha told reporters he had spoken that evening to the collectors of Nandyal, Kadapa, Palnadu, Markapuram, Nellore, Prakasam, Tirupati, Chittoor, Anantapur, Kurnool, Annamayya and Sri Sathya Sai. Polling was by and large peaceful, he said. Incidents in Palnadu, Anantapur and Pulivendula were being investigated. Any repoll decision, he said, had to withstand judicial scrutiny.

He also said the police had registered 275 FIRs in connection with 40 incidents, and that a repoll, if required, would be on 2 November. On the SEC's manpower, he said the commission had to run the election with the staff available to it, and that unlike the Election Commission of India it did not deploy external observers.

One booth ran late for a different reason. The Hindu reported that the SEC extended polling by two and a half hours, until 7:30 p.m., in Ward No. 55 of the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation, after an error in the printing of symbols allotted to two candidates. Voting there had begun at 9 a.m. The paper also reported that independent candidate A.B. Venkateswara Rao staged a protest at Polling Station No. 73 in New RR Peta, Vijayawada, demanding a repoll at that booth.

How the Sunday turnout figure moved

The number to use for Sunday depends on which SEC update a report caught.

At 3 p.m. on 1 November, The Hindu said the SEC put turnout at 48.03 per cent, and compared that with 63.30 per cent in the 2021 elections. That 3 p.m. reading is not the final. The Hindu did not say whether 63.30 was the 2021 final or a same-hour comparison.

On Monday morning, PTI (carried by The Print) called 60.3 per cent tentative: 58,48,040 votes out of 96,89,061 registered voters, across 3,453 wards. That copy also said polling was for 100 urban local bodies. Later SEC accounts used by The Hindu and Deccan Chronicle stay with 92 bodies that actually went to polls.

IANS, in a report timestamped 1:54 p.m. on 2 November, said Sunday's turnout in the 92 bodies was 60.96 per cent: 59,06,255 of 96,89,061 voters.

On Monday evening the SEC called the Sunday figure final. The Hindu, in a report published at 7:39 p.m. and updated at 8:18 p.m., quoted a press release from Punetha: 62.16 per cent, 60,22,411 of 96,89,061 voters, in the 92 bodies that polled on 1 November. Deccan Chronicle, timestamped 10:26 p.m., reported the same total and said polling was held in 3,453 wards. It said Chimakurthy recorded the highest turnout at 84.36 per cent and Tirupati the lowest at 46.85 per cent.

The arithmetic of the final line is consistent: 60,22,411 divided by 96,89,061 is 62.16 per cent. The earlier 60.96 per cent matches 59,06,255 of the same electorate. These are successive Sunday totals. They are not the repoll.

What Jagan alleged in Pulivendula

Pulivendula, in YSR Kadapa district, is Jagan's home constituency. The Times of India reported that he flew in on Sunday morning, met YSRCP booth agents at his camp office, and then told a press conference that the ruling TDP had captured booths and rigged the poll with local police support.

His count, as The Times of India reported it: Pulivendula has 80 polling booths, and YSRCP agents were driven out of 70 and allowed to remain in 10. He said the agents would be taken to the returning officer to ask how polling could proceed without opposition agents. He alleged that TDP workers occupied booths from 4 a.m., intimidated voters, and prevented YSRCP agents from entering. He also alleged attacks on YSRCP candidates, including chairperson nominee Y.S. Prameelamma.

He said nearly 1,000 police personnel were deployed and that hundreds of TDP workers were still allowed to remain around booths. He said repeated calls to the superintendent of police and the collector produced no correction. He questioned whether Supreme Court directions on CCTV were being followed, and asked how the poll could be called transparent without live footage from polling stations. He named Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, the SEC, collectors and superintendents as the people who had to answer for the precedent.

The Times of India reported that he then sat in in front of the municipal office, with Kadapa MP Y.S. Avinash Reddy and party workers. The Hindu's photograph of the protest is captioned outside the returning officer's office. He met returning officer Srinivas and revenue divisional officer Chinnayya, gave them his account, and submitted a representation seeking a repoll at all 80 booths. He did not vote. The Times of India said he returned to Bengaluru.

The Hindu added a separate confrontation on his way to the returning officer's office: Sk. Dastagiri, whom the paper described as an accused in the murder of former MP Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy, reportedly confronted him. That is The Hindu's report of the encounter, not a finding in this article about the older case.

On Monday, after the SEC had limited the Pulivendula repoll to four booths, Jagan widened the charge to the commission itself. The Hindu reported an X post in which he said the SEC, which is meant to protect democracy, had become subservient to Chandrababu Naidu. He repeated the 70 of 80 booth claim, alleged that TDP workers brought from outside attacked agents, pulled some out of stations, snatched voter slips and cast votes repeatedly, and said video evidence was clear. He called a repoll in only four booths an eyewash. He said irregularities were not limited to Pulivendula and named corporations including Kadapa, Anantapur, Tirupati, Kurnool, Chittoor, Ongole, Guntur, Nellore, Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada, plus a list of municipalities. Those are his allegations. The SEC's repoll order covers some of those places and not others.

He said the YSRCP will fight the irregularities in court and will place every piece of evidence before the courts. The Hindu's account of the post says "court". It does not say he named a particular court in that post.

What the Kadapa collector and the SP said

The district administration's account, given at a press conference in Kadapa on Sunday and reported by The Times of India, is a direct rebuttal on the agent question.

Collector and election officer Dr Sreedhar Cherukuri, with SP Shelke Nachiket Vishwanath, told reporters that not a single polling booth agent was prevented from entering the stations or from doing the job. Cherukuri shared records that 47 polling agents were registered across Pulivendula's 80 stations before 7 a.m. He said all registered agents had submitted appointment letters, identification cards and photographs, as the rules require, and had taken part in the voting. A few left their stations between 11 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. for personal reasons. Others stayed. Election officials, he said, did not stop any authorised agent.

On the helicopter, the two accounts also diverge in the detail.

Jagan said permission granted the previous day was withdrawn after the helicopter had taken off from Bengaluru, with authorities insisting he arrive only after 3 p.m., and that landing was allowed after civil aviation authorities objected to a cancellation while the aircraft was already in the air.

The SP's account to The Times of India: initial permission was issued on 27 October for an expected arrival of 1 p.m., with Z-plus security arranged. A Sunday-morning update moved the arrival to 10 a.m. Authorities first rescheduled the landing to 3 p.m. for law and order reasons. Once the operator confirmed the helicopter was airborne, clearance was given for a landing at 9:45 a.m. The collector said no order was given to turn the helicopter back or divert it.

The officials also said Pulivendula polling was monitored continuously by webcasting inside stations and CCTV around the perimeters.

The collector's "no agent was blocked" line and Jagan's "70 of 80" line cannot both describe the same set of booths. This article does not have the agent registers or the video. What happened next is a matter of record: the SEC, after field reports, still voided four Pulivendula stations for booth capturing. That is an official finding about those four stations. It does not, by itself, establish what happened at the other booths Jagan named.

The attack on a media crew

A separate criminal case sits alongside the party claims.

The Times of India reported a violent assault at about 8:10 a.m. on Sunday outside the Government School in Ahobilapuram, near Gandhi Statue Circle. India Today associate editor Abdul Basheer and video journalist S. Vijay, who had come from Hyderabad, were near the polling centre when a mob of about 50 to 80 unidentified people confronted them. The assailants tried to seize the camera. When Basheer intervened, they tried to snatch his microphone, took both journalists' identity cards and phones, removed the camera's memory card and battery, and smashed the camera.

Basheer lodged a complaint. Pulivendula U/G Police Station registered Crime No. 192/2026 under Sections 308(2), 115(2) and 324(4), read with Section 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The paper said police were searching for the attackers. SP Shelke Nachiket Vishwanath spoke to Basheer, promised legal action, and deployed security for the journalists for the rest of polling day. Kadapa MP Avinash Reddy met the two journalists and alleged that the TDP had hired outsiders to attack YSRCP cadres, media workers and the public. That is the MP's allegation.

India Today reported that the attack set off a public clash between the parties. The TDP posted video of Basheer calming his colleague and said YSRCP workers had invited the crew and then attacked them to discredit the coalition government nationally. The YSRCP rejected that, posted video of the journalists meeting Jagan, and said the TDP should listen to the journalists rather than accuse the party. India Today also reported that NTV reporter Suresh and other media workers were injured, citing sources, and that Sakshi TV executive editor Ismail was attacked with stones. Jagan met Basheer, Vijay and Suresh, condemned the attacks, and asked for an impartial investigation. The paper presented both parties' accusations. It did not report a police conclusion on who sent the mob.

Where the SEC ordered a repoll

Punetha issued orders late on Sunday declaring the poll at the affected stations void and directing a fresh poll on 2 November.

PTI, in a morning copy, said repolling had begun at 12 stations in six urban local bodies: Jammalamadugu wards 3, 17 and 29; Kadapa Municipal Corporation ward 15; Pulivendula wards 1, 3, 7 and 8; two stations in Macherla ward 23; one station in Anantapuramu Municipal Corporation ward 30; and one station in Chimakurthy ward 14. That copy did not mention Tirupati.

IANS and a Deccan Chronicle report from 9:01 a.m. give the fuller list of 13 stations in seven bodies, across five districts:

• Pulivendula Municipality: Polling Station No. 1 in each of wards 1, 3, 7 and 8.
• Jammalamadugu Municipality: Station No. 2 in ward 3, and Station No. 1 in wards 17 and 29.
• Kadapa Municipal Corporation: Station No. 2 in division 15.
• Macherla Municipality (Palnadu): Stations No. 1 and 2 in ward 23.
• Anantapur Municipal Corporation: Station No. 3 in division 30.
• Tirupati Municipal Corporation: Station No. 4 in division 36.
• Chimakurthy Municipality (Prakasam): Station No. 1 in ward 14.

IANS said eight of the 13 stations are in YSR Kadapa district (Pulivendula, Jammalamadugu and Kadapa), two are in Palnadu, and one each in Anantapur, Tirupati and Prakasam. It said the SEC's ground, for the Pulivendula stations and for the others it described the same way, was that booth capturing had vitiated the poll and deprived voters of their franchise. PTI likewise said the orders followed reports from the district administration and the district election authority that booth capturing had taken place.

The repoll ran from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Voters had indelible ink applied to the middle finger of the left hand. IANS said security was tightened. Jagan's demand for a fresh poll at all 80 Pulivendula booths was not granted.

What the repoll turnout reports say

The close-of-poll figure is reported. It is not yet a single SEC table that every outlet prints the same way.

IANS said the 13 stations together had recorded 23.62 per cent by 11 a.m.

Deccan Chronicle, timestamped 11:19 p.m. on 2 November, said repolling in 12 wards across seven bodies in five districts recorded 60.64 per cent by 5 p.m., and that polling passed off peacefully. Its hourly path: 6.78 per cent by 9 a.m., 21.62 per cent by 11 a.m., 42.27 per cent by 1 p.m., 52.62 per cent by 3 p.m., and 60.64 per cent by 5 p.m. The 11 a.m. mark in that story (21.62) is not the same as IANS's 23.62 by 11 a.m.

The same Deccan Chronicle story printed booth percentages, including 47.47 per cent and 75.54 per cent at the ends of its Pulivendula and Jammalamadugu lists. It labelled the Jammalamadugu wards as 1, 17 and 29. The morning order reports, including Deccan Chronicle's own 9:01 a.m. story and PTI, said Jammalamadugu wards 3, 17 and 29. A ward number that changes inside the same paper is a reason not to treat that booth table as final.

Disha Daily, updated at 4:16 p.m. IST, said the SEC had put the repoll at 6,041 voters out of 9,890, and its headline said 62.16 per cent. Those two figures do not agree. 6,041 of 9,890 is 61.08 per cent, not 62.16. The 62.16 figure is the statewide Sunday turnout. Disha also reported, as the SEC's booth highs and lows, 75.54 per cent at the Jammalamadugu ward 29 station and 47.47 per cent at the Pulivendula ward 7 station, and it listed Pulivendula's four stations as 65.45, 55.49, 47.47 and 56.93 per cent. Deccan Chronicle's Pulivendula series is different. Until the commission publishes one booth sheet, the safe statements are these: a repoll was held at the 13 stations; Deccan Chronicle put the combined close at 60.64 per cent; Disha attributed an elector count of 6,041 of 9,890 to the SEC; and the headline percentage attached to that count in Disha does not match the division.

Counting on 3 November, and why there is no result in this piece

The Hindu reported that the SEC had arranged counting from 8 a.m. on 3 November for the 92 bodies: 3,186 wards (804 in corporations and 2,382 in municipalities and nagar panchayats), at 138 counting centres (22 in corporations, the rest in the other bodies). The count uses 47,817 supervisors, assistants and staff (28,182 in corporations and 19,635 in the others). 1,372 CCTV cameras are installed at strong rooms and counting centres.

Deccan Chronicle reported the same 8 a.m. start, the same 3,186 wards, the same 47,817 personnel and the same 1,372 cameras, and added 556 counting halls and 6,831 tables. It said eight urban local bodies have already been elected unanimously. It did not name them in that report. It also said polling had been held in 3,453 wards, against 3,186 wards in the counting note. The copies read here do not explain that gap, and this article will not guess at it.

The Times of India, timestamped 12:21 a.m. IST on 3 November, said counting was to begin at 8 a.m. Punetha told the paper that personnel were in place, that CCTV and security at strong rooms and counting halls had been strengthened, and that returning officers will declare the results after counting is completed. The paper said the ruling alliance was confident, that the mayoral contests in Vijayawada and the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation were the main draws, and that the YSRCP was cautious about predicting those leadership contests and was looking instead at corporator and ward-member seats. It named former DGP A.B. Venkateswara Rao as an added factor in Vijayawada, NDA candidate Vangaveeti Radhakrishna, and YSRCP candidate and former mayor Rayana Bhagyalakshmi. Those are the paper's political readings on the eve of the count, not results.

An X post circulating ahead of Tuesday had said the count was on 3 November. That date is confirmed by the SEC arrangements The Hindu and Deccan Chronicle reported, and by Punetha's comments to The Times of India. The count had not started at publication. No mayor, chairperson or ward result is included here because none had been declared.

What to watch next

1. The 8 a.m. count on 3 November at 138 centres, and the declarations by returning officers. Nothing in the midnight reports is a result.
2. Whether the YSRCP files in court, and whether it asks for a repoll beyond the 13 stations the SEC has already voided.
3. A single SEC repoll sheet. Deccan Chronicle's 60.64 per cent, IANS's 23.62 per cent by 11 a.m., and Disha's 6,041 of 9,890 need one official table. So does the Jammalamadugu ward number.
4. Crime No. 192/2026, the Pulivendula case on the attack on Abdul Basheer and S. Vijay. Party posts have named culprits. The police, in the reporting so far, have not.
5. The Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam mayoral counts, which The Times of India flagged as the contests to watch, along with the ward tallies the YSRCP has said it is focused on.

Jagan's rigging charge is an allegation. The collector's denial is the district's answer. The SEC's own order sits between them: four Pulivendula stations, not 70, were voided for booth capturing, along with nine stations elsewhere. The winners are the part that was still in the boxes.

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Updated in the early hours of 3 November 2026, before the 8 a.m. count, from reports by The Hindu, The Times of India, Deccan Chronicle, IANS (via AP7AM), PTI (via The Print), India Today and Disha Daily. Sunday turnout figures are successive SEC updates, and the final Sunday figure cited here is 62.16 per cent. Repoll booth percentages do not match across outlets. Allegations by Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, the TDP, the YSRCP and Kadapa MP Y.S. Avinash Reddy are attributed as allegations. No result had been declared at publication. Check the State Election Commission for the count.