Hyderabad, Dec 14 : A candidate in the Panchayat elections in Telangana died a few minutes before the polling began on Sunday, while a voter collapsed and succumbed soon after casting his vote.

A candidate for the Sarpanch's post died in Khammam district a few minutes before the polling began at 7 a.m.

D. Nagaraju was the independent candidate from Anasagar village in Nelkonapalli mandal. He was under stress due to the election campaign.

According to his family members, he took ill on Saturday night. He was admitted to the hospital, where he succumbed on Sunday morning.

In another tragic incident, a voter collapsed after casting his vote in Ranga Reddy district. The incident occurred at a polling centre in Aluru village of Chevella mandal.

Solipeta Butchaiah, 70, collapsed after coming out of the polling centre. He was rushed to a hospital, where doctors declared him dead.

Butchaiahâ??s daughter Ramulamma is a candidate for the Ward Member's post in Venkannaguda village.

In another incident, the husband of a Sarpanch candidate in Medak district climbed on a mobile phone tower to protest against the alleged distribution of money by other candidates. The incident occurred in Peddatanda Gram Panchayat.

Shankar Naiik, whose wife is the Sarpanch candidate from the same Gram Panchayat, climbed on the mobile phone tower. He alleged that his wifeâ??s rivals were distributing Rs 2,000 each among voters to lure them.

The second phase of polls was held on Sunday for 3,911 Sarpanch posts and 29,917 Ward Member posts in 193 mandals.

A little over 57.22 lakh voters (29.26 lakh female and 27.96 lakh male) would decide the fate of 12,782 candidates for Sarpanch posts and 71,071 for Ward Member posts.

Meanwhile, in an interesting incident, a Sarpanch candidate who lost the election in Nalgonda district started collecting money from the voters which he had distributed.

The incident was reported from Auravani village of Narkatpally mandal. Kalluri Balaraju, who contested as a sarpanch candidate with the support of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), had distributed money to the voters. However, the Congress candidate Jakkala Paramesh won the election with a majority of 450 votes.

Following this, Balaraju went from house to house in the village, holding a picture of a deity and crying: "If you voted for me, swear on God and tell me. Otherwise, return the money I gave you."

He collected the money from many voters. His wife said that they would not have asked for the money back if they had lost by a margin of 50 or 60 votes.

/IANS