Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday, April 23, adjourned a petition seeking to defer the acceptance of resignations of the grama/ward volunteers ahead of Assembly and Lok Sabha elections scheduled to take place on May 13. The petition was filed by Bharatha Chaitanya Yuvajana Party president Bode Ramachandra Yadav on April 22, 2024 requesting the Election Commission of India (ECI) and Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Andhra Pradesh to direct the state government to issue orders in this regard.
The petitioner has cited his prayer to the High Court to issue an order directing to temporarily pause accepting resignations of village and ward volunteers employed by the Government of Andhra Pradesh to a date later than the date of election i.e May 14, 2024. Justice B Krishna Mohan heard the petition on Tuesday.
The petition comes in the wake of a series of resignations by volunteers employed at the village and ward secretariats after the ECI issued instructions barring volunteers from participating in distribution of pensions and election-related activities.
More than two lakh village and ward volunteers were employed by the YSRCP government in 2019 for identifying beneficiaries and door delivery of schemes for fifty households assigned to him in the area.
Earlier this month, the opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidu alleged that the Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has forced the volunteers to resign and participate in election campaigns of the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP).