After the spate of violent incidents at Punganur and Rayachoti on Friday, the nomination phase of the local body elections witnessed sporadic violence across Rayalaseema districts on Saturday too.
The police had to open six rounds of fire in Pulivendula (the constituency represented by YSRCP president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy) to bring the violent mobs under control.
The extreme step was warranted by the sudden attempt by the YSRCP activists to barge into the nomination filing centre in large numbers.
As the TDP team was already inside the hall to submit its nomination, the police asked the YSRCP leaders and cadre to wait for a while.
Taking offence, the cadres attempted to barge in, causing the situation to potentially escalate into a war of words, and stopped short of exchanging blows.
Pushed to the corner, the policemen fired six rounds in the air to defuse the situation and also resorted to mild lathi-charge to chase away the trouble-mongers.
Meanwhile, Superintendent of Police Nachiket Vishwanath Shelke rushed to Mydukur to bring to control a similar situation, where activists of both the parties confronted and threw stones at each other.
YSRCP leaders, including former Deputy Chief Minister S.B. Amzath Basha and district party president P. Ravindranath Reddy, were placed under house arrest as a precautionary measure.
Meanwhile, YSRCP’s Kadapa Member of Parliament Y.S. Avinash Reddy blamed Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and his son and HRD Minister N. Lokesh for “instigating attacks” on the YSRCP nominees to create a reign of terror and force the opposition party candidates to withdraw from the electoral race.
Published - October 17, 2026 07:42 pm IST