Afternoon Pulse: YSRCP takes its central-forces demand to court as the SEC readies Wednesday's schedule

Since this morning, Andhra's local body contest has moved from the Election Commission's table to the courtroom. The YSRCP has taken its demand for central armed forces to the Andhra Pradesh High Court, ap7am reported at 10.35 am, confirming a move that Andhra Jyothy first reported overnight. We held this item in the Morning Pulse until a second outlet carried it. It now has two.

According to ap7am, party general secretary Lella Appi Reddy wants central forces deployed and placed under the guidance of independent observers named by the State Election Commission. He has made the Commission, the Union Home Secretary, the state Home Department and the DGP respondents. The petition says the party does not trust the state police, alleges false cases against its workers, and says an earlier request to the Commission went unanswered. Former Gurajala MLA Kasu Mahesh Reddy has filed a second petition seeking security for candidates filing nominations in his constituency. No hearing date has been reported. Andhra Jyothy described the petitions as a pretext born of fear of defeat; the state government has not responded publicly.

The meeting we flagged this morning went ahead on schedule. State Election Commissioner Anil Chandra Punetha was to brief about 20 parties in Vijayawada at 11.30 am, ETV Bharat reported. By 1 pm we could find no published account of what was said inside, so the parties' complaints remain off the record for now. Both ETV Bharat and Andhra Jyothy's live pages say the schedule is due on Wednesday. ETV Bharat reports that the Commission will announce municipal, MPTC, ZPTC and gram panchayat polls together, but notify urban bodies first: 100 corporations, municipalities and nagar panchayats on the same day, and the remaining 23 a day later.

The alliance's mayor split is still unpublished. ETV Bharat reported that ministers Palla Srinivas and Nimmala Ramanaidu are to meet Pawan Kalyan this afternoon, while BJP state chief PVN Madhav meets Chandrababu Naidu again. Andhra Jyothy said the three partners will take up Jana Sena and BJP seats this evening. ETV Bharat also reported that some leaders are unhappy with the reservations, and that Naidu told them a special commission ran that process and the government could not interfere.

In Hyderabad, the Telangana High Court took up the Enforcement Directorate's plea for day-to-day trial in the Jagan Mohan Reddy cases this morning, ETV Bharat reported at 10.06 am. The agency wants the CBI court told to hear pending discharge petitions daily and to require Jagan and the other accused to attend. At the previous hearing the matter was adjourned to today, ap7am reported, with the bench saying it would hear the plea alongside an older PIL and suo motu petitions on the same delay. No order had been reported by 1 pm. Jagan's side has not publicly answered the ED's arguments.

The ED's money-laundering probe into the 2019 murder of YS Vivekananda Reddy moved up a rung. YS Bhaskar Reddy, an accused in the case and the father of Kadapa MP YS Avinash Reddy, was asked to appear at the agency's Hyderabad office today, ap7am and ETV Bharat reported. ETV Bharat said investigators suspect the alleged advance payments to other accused passed through him; he has not commented, and the allegations are untested in court. Both outlets say Avinash Reddy is due on Wednesday.

Away from the polls, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay is due in Vijayawada this afternoon to press Naidu on Krishna water for Chennai under the Telugu Ganga project, Deccan Chronicle reported. The Week reported that Tamil Nadu had received only 2.251 TMC of its 12 TMC yearly share by 9 October. The Godavari-Cauvery link and upstream dams are also on the table, and Vijay is expected to visit the Kanaka Durga temple and the Vijayawada Utsav.

Vijayawada gets a second VIP on Wednesday. President Droupadi Murmu arrives that evening for prayers at Indrakeeladri and is chief guest at the SARAS rural artisans' mela at Punnami Ghat on Thursday, Deccan Chronicle and The Hans India reported.