Evening Pulse: The polls are called for October 28, and the allies still have not split the seats

Since this morning, the clock has started and the alliance has not caught up with it. The State Election Commission released the full local body schedule this afternoon, and the model code of conduct is now in force across Andhra Pradesh. Nominations for the urban bodies close on Saturday, October 18. Yet by evening the TDP and Jana Sena were still trading proposals over mayor and municipal chair posts, and talks with the BJP had not even begun. That leaves the three partners four days to agree on candidates in more than a hundred towns and cities.

The 11:30 announcement we flagged did not happen at 11:30. ETV Bharat's live updates said the Commission's media briefing was moved to 3:15 pm, and the schedule came out shortly after. State Election Commissioner Anil Chandra Punetha confirmed three stages, ETV Bharat and Telugu Post reported. Corporations, municipalities and nagar panchayats go first: nominations close on October 18, scrutiny is on October 19, withdrawals end on October 21, polling is on October 28 and counting on October 30. ETV Bharat put the urban list at 13 corporations, 77 municipalities and 10 nagar panchayats. Earlier reports had counted 17 mayor posts, and we could not confirm why the list is shorter.

Parishad elections follow. The MPTC and ZPTC notification is due on October 19, with polling on November 3 and counting on November 5. Gram panchayats then vote in three rounds, on November 26, November 29 and December 2, according to both outlets. Telugu Post reported that the parishad stage covers 661 ZPTC and 9,913 MPTC seats and the panchayat stage 13,351 sarpanch posts. The whole process ends on December 2.

The 10 am alliance meeting produced talks, not a list. Jana Sena leaders led by minister Nadendla Manohar met Chandrababu Naidu at his Undavalli residence, then went to Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan to brief him and take his decision, Disha Daily reported this evening. ETV Bharat said BJP talks will start once the Jana Sena numbers are settled. Tupaki, citing unnamed sources, reported that Jana Sena wants six corporations and 26 municipalities against a TDP offer of four and 24, and that Pawan Kalyan was unhappy that reservations were fixed without consulting him. None of the parties has confirmed these figures or spoken on the record.

Jana Sena did gain a recruit while it bargained. Former MLA Vangaveeti Radhakrishna, son of the late Vangaveeti Mohana Ranga, joined the party at its Mangalagiri office, where Pawan Kalyan welcomed him with a party scarf, NTV Telugu and UNI reported. UNI said he left the TDP to do so. Both outlets reported talk that he could be Jana Sena's candidate for Vijayawada mayor, a post that is unreserved, but the party has not announced it. If he is the candidate, Vijayawada becomes the hardest seat to settle at the alliance table.

In Hyderabad, Kadapa MP YS Avinash Reddy appeared before the Enforcement Directorate as scheduled, The Hans India and IANS reported. The ED is probing money laundering linked to the 2019 murder of YS Vivekananda Reddy, including an alleged Rs 40 crore deal behind the killing. Neither report carried a statement from Avinash Reddy after the session. He is an accused in the murder case, not a convicted person, and the ED did not comment.

The other court story of the day concerns his cousin. A CBI court in Hyderabad decided to hear the nine ED chargesheets in YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's assets case day to day, alongside the CBI cases, Andhra Jyothy and ETV Bharat reported; ETV Bharat said the ED cases could be taken up from next Monday. This morning we had found no order on the ED's plea for a daily trial. The cases date from 2004 to 2009, and no verdict has been delivered in any of them. We found no response from Jagan or the YSRCP.

We also found no YSRCP statement on the schedule itself by evening, and no new High Court order on its election petitions within today's reports. Its petitions on security and central forces remain the party's main lever on how the polls are run.