Amaravati, May 21 (IANS): In a major development on Friday, the Andhra Pradesh High Court cancelled the Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency (MPTC) and Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency (ZPTC) polls that were held on April 8.

Observing that the notification issued by the State Election Commission (SEC) was not in line with the Supreme Court guidelines which specified that elections should be held four weeks after the notification is issued, the high court ordered fresh elections to be held for the MPTC and ZPTC bodies.

In April this year, the SEC had courted controversy by issuing election notification for MPTC and ZPTC polls on April 1, and organised the elections a week later, on April 8.

The opposition parties, TDP, BJP, and Janasena, had opposed the decision, and filed petitions in the high court.

While a single judge bench had ruled that the polls be postponed, the YSRCP government had approached a division bench which allowed polling on April 7, but put the counting of votes on hold till the court decides the matter.

Following several hearings into the issue, the high court on Friday ruled that the SEC must issue a fresh notification and hold the elections again.