New Delhi, May 16: The Election Commission (EC) on Thursday declared the polls held on April 11 at five polling stations of the Chandragiri Assembly constituency and the Chittoor Parliamentary constituency of Andhra Pradesh as void. Re-polls are now scheduled to take place on May 19 along with the seventh phase of the Lok Sabha elections. Andhra Pradesh Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Phase I Voting Concludes, Over 66 Percent Voters Exercise Franchise.

Repolling in these five booths for both Chandragiri Assembly seat and Chittoor (Scheduled Caste) Lok Sabha seat will be held between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. The EC took the decision on the recommendation by state election authorities. This followed complaint by outgoing MLA from Chandragiri and YSR Congress Party candidate C. Bhaskar Reddy that voters of one particular community were not allowed to cast their votes on April 11.

Earlier, the EC also directed officials to conduct re-elections at five polling stations in Andhra Pradesh on May 6. Voting took place in polling booths located in Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore districts. This decision came after recommendations were made by collectors of the three districts for re-poll as on the day of voting, incidents of violence, malfunctioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and other circumstances prevented voters to cast their vote freely and in a fair manner.

The voting for 175 assembly seats and 25 Lok Sabha seats took place in the first phase of parliamentary polls on April 11. Amid reports of non-functioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), Chief Minister and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu had demanded repoll in around 150 polling stations. Workers of TDP and YSRCP clashed with each other in Anantapur. One worker of each party reportedly died in the clash. Andhra Pradesh Lok Sabha & Assembly Elections 2019: Chandrababu Naidu Hits Out at EC, Says 30% EVMs Not Working.

Andhra Pradesh witnessed a three-cornered electoral contest between Chandrababu Naidu, Jagan Mohan Reddy and Jana Sena leader and actor Pawan Kalyan. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress were also in the fray but their prospects appear bleak.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 16, 2019 08:29 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).