A day after the Andhra Pradesh State Election Commissioner (SEC) Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar declared the schedule for conducting the rural local body elections, the state government approached the Andhra Pradesh High Court against the move. The government moved a house motion petition in the High Court on Saturday against the announcement of the panchayat election schedule, and the matter will be heard on Monday.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das had said that the rural local body elections, which was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, could resume only after the vaccination programme starts rolling. "Once this pandemic is tackled with vaccination, the state would agree to any schedule of the local election process. In view of the wellbeing of the people of Andhra Pradesh, the SEC may consider the request of state government," said Das. He met the SEC along with other officials to present the state government's viewpoint.
However, Ramesh Kumar, who has been engaged in a battle over the local body polls with the Jagan Mohan Reddy regime since March last year, announced the schedule hours after his meeting with Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das and other top officials on ( ). As per the schedule, the model code of conduct (MCC) would come into force from January 9, and the panchayat elections will be held in four phases from February 5 to 17.
Responding to SEC, who cited examples of the elections conducted amid the pandemic in Bihar, Kerala and the US, Gopal Krishna Dwivedi, Principal Secretary (Panchayat Raj and Rural Development) said in the petition that COVID-19 infections were observed to have gone up in all such places after the elections, the Times of Indian reported.
A large number of government employees associations have also told Ramesh Kumar to reconsider his decision, and some have even threatened to boycott election duties if the schedule is not revoked, according to The New Indian Express. They highlighted that at present, during the winter, when there is a fear of a second wave of the pandemic and anxiety around the more potent variant of coronavirus that was detected in the UK, the SEC must not go ahead with the panchayat elections, ignoring the health and well-being of lakhs of families.
A host of ruling YSRCP leaders lashed out at Ramesh Kumar for the decision, insinuating that he was making decisions on behalf of the opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP). "Everybody knows that Ramesh Kumar is acting on somebody else's behest along with a personal motive. What is unfortunate is that he is putting people's lives at risk," said Agriculture Minister Kurasala Kannababu.
The Minister alleged that Ramesh Kumar is behaving in such a way that he wants his agenda to prevail at any cost, disregarding public health. He questioned why Ramesh Kumar did not conduct elections during the previous Telugu Desam Party (TDP) regime. "You behave in one way when Chandrababu Naidu was in power and another way when Jagan Mohan Reddy is in power," Kannababu said.
With IANS inputs