Outside the Returning Officer’s office in Pulivendula, situated in Andhra Pradesh’s Kadapa district, the atmosphere on November 1, 2026, was defined by sharp political confrontation. YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, the president of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, arrived to lead a direct protest alongside party colleague Avinash Reddy. Standing before election officials and crowds of supporters, Jagan leveled severe accusations against the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) alliance, alleging that the urban local body elections in Pulivendula had been corrupted by widespread misconduct, violence, and rigging.
For Jagan, the local contest had devolved into a systemic effort to bypass democratic norms. Addressing the officials gathered at the Assistant Returning Officer’s (ARVO) site, he expressed profound anger, challenging the administrative authorities directly on how the polling process had been conducted under their watch.
The core of the YSRCP’s grievance rests on a stark numerical imbalance across the municipality's electoral map. Pulivendula contains a total of 80 polling booths. According to claims detailed by Jagan during the demonstration, YSRCP agents were allowed to enter and monitor proceedings in only 10 of those locations. In the remaining 70 polling booths, party agents were actively barred, obstructed, or forced out entirely.
Compounding these irregularities was a total lack of mandated visual surveillance inside the voting halls.
Flanking the party leadership during the protest were 70 polling agents who stood as direct witnesses to the disruption. Their presence outside the Returning Officer's office was presented as physical proof of an orchestrated campaign to clear the booths of opposition oversight. Without agents inside 70 polling stations, Jagan argued, the integrity of the vote had been systematically compromised from the moment the doors opened.
#WATCH | Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh: YSRCP chief and former CM Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy met the Returning Officer in Pulivendula and submitted a representation alleging irregularities during the municipal polling. Following the meeting, he staged a sit-in protest in front of the Returning Officer's office in Pulivendula, demanding justice for YSRCP polling agents He says, "All these are polling agents. These polling agents, who are supposed to be seated in the polling booths, are not permitted into the booths... The TDP goons have taken over the polling booths and the premises... When there are no agents in the polling booth pertaining to the opposition party, then who is to identify the candidates? We have given them (the RO) all the evidence..."
According to the allegations raised during the protest, the exclusion of polling agents was accompanied by direct interference with local voters. Jagan stated that TDP operatives obstructed citizens trying to reach the polling stations, forcibly seizing their voter slips to prevent them from casting legitimate ballots. With opposition monitors excluded and voters turned away, illegal voting and ballot rigging took place across affected wards.
Compounding these irregularities was a total lack of mandated visual surveillance inside the voting halls. Jagan highlighted that crucial safety protocols—specifically video recording and CCTV camera coverage—were completely absent from the booths. Rather than facilitating a fair and transparent election, he argued, the ruling alliance had engaged in outright coercion, plotting a back-door victory instead of risking an open vote.
Perhaps the most troubling dimension of the allegations concerns the actions of local law enforcement. Rather than acting as neutral arbiters of security, Andhra Pradesh police officers were accused of actively aiding the TDP during the election proceedings. Jagan claimed that police personnel went so far as to personally take away the official forms required for YSRCP agents to enter the polling booths.
By seizing agent forms and facilitating the movement of TDP operatives, police officers allegedly enabled the very rigging they were tasked with preventing. Jagan condemned the violence carried out by TDP goondas, demanding an immediate end to intimidation tactics and insisting that law enforcement fulfill its duty to conduct smooth, uncorrupted elections that protect the democratic process.
LIVE | Workers of the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) clashed in Pulivendula, the home turf of YSRCP chief and former Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, during Andhra Pradesh’s urban local body elections on Sunday (November 1, 2026). Stones were thrown in some wards before the police brought the situation under control. https://t.co/1h3PyGrtVO
During the November 1 demonstration, Jagan and Avinash Reddy formally submitted a detailed memorandum to the Returning Officer. The document outlined specific instances of electoral fraud, backed by evidence of fake votes and available CCTV footage from surrounding areas. Confronting the officials directly, Jagan posed fundamental questions about the moral and legal responsibility of the state's electoral machinery.
"Is this democracy?" Jagan asked, challenging the administrators to reflect on the broader societal fallout of compromised elections. He remarked that the officials' own consciences knew very well how the voting had been executed. He questioned what kind of message authorities were sending to society if they failed to respect basic democratic principles, urging them to correct the electoral injustices committed in Pulivendula.
The grievances voiced in Pulivendula reflect a lingering conflict over electoral standards that Jagan had previously raised during a media interaction in Pulivendula on October 1, 2023. At the protest, he targeted both the State Election Commission (SEC) and the Election Commission of India (ECI), accusing election authorities of failing to uphold explicit directives issued by the Supreme Court of India.
Because the administrative safeguards failed to prevent agent exclusions, voter intimidation, and police overreach, Jagan demanded the complete cancellation of the Pulivendula elections and the immediate scheduling of a re-poll. Should the election commissions fail to act on the memorandum and restore democratic integrity, Jagan made it clear that the YSRCP is fully prepared to take its case back to the Supreme Court.