The Andhra Pradesh State Election Commission (SEC) on Saturday issued the notification to conduct the gram panchayats elections in the state. This comes a day after the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government, which is vehemently opposed to conducting the polls, informed the SEC that the time was not conducive for the exercise.
Hours after the State Election Commission issued the notification, top officials, including the Chief Secretary, refrained from attending a video conference convened by the SEC to discuss the polls as well as the COVID-19 vaccination programme. State Election Commissioner (SEC) Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar on Saturday even complained to Andhra Pradesh Director-General of Police Gautam Sawang about a government employee's alleged “potential death threat”, and asked the police to keep a close watch on the employee.
Here are five things to know about the ongoing drama surrounding the local body polls in the state.
HC allows SEC to conduct the polls: On Thursday, in a major setback to the YSRCP government, a High Court division bench allowed the SEC's appeal against a single judge's order on January 11, which had suspended the poll schedule. According to the SEC’s schedule, polling must start on February 5. However, the state government has insisted that holding elections alongside the vaccination drive is a big challenge for the government.
State moves SC: In spite of the latest HC orders, the state government has urged the SEC to reconsider its schedule. It has also moved the Supreme Court challenging the HC order allowing the elections. The government asserted on Friday that it would be "ready to conduct the elections after 60 days of completion of the first round of (COVID-19) vaccination of frontline personnel who would be involved in the polls." It also asked the SEC to wait for the Supreme Court order with regards to a special leave petition the state government has filed, challenging the HC division bench order, which has allowed the panchayat elections.
State officials skip meeting: On Saturday afternoon, SEC Ramesh Kumar convened a video conference with state and district level government officials to discuss ways to conduct panchayat elections alongside the vaccination drive. However, the officials did not attend the meeting.
Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das, Director General of Police Gautam Sawang, and Panchayat Raj Principal Secretary Gopal Krishna Dwivedi did not attend the video conference convened by the SEC, official sources told PTI. All the district Collectors, too, reportedly skipped the event, citing one reason or the other, but mostly "connectivity problem" as the main cause.
In his letter to the SEC on Friday, the Chief Secretary had requested to postpone the video conference. The SEC turned down the request, saying it was the "right platform" to discuss the state government’s concerns over the coronavirus vaccination programme also. "I would certainly do my best to address the concerns on the vaccination front apart from poll preparedness. The Commission would like to discuss this issue prominently with the Collectors and give instructions suitably," Ramesh Kumar said in reply to the Chief Secretary's letter.
State would be held responsible: SEC Ramesh Kumar warned that only the state government would be held responsible if the poll process faced any hindrance. He pointed out that it was the state government’s "constitutional responsibility" to conduct elections to the local bodies. "The government machinery will have to pay the price for any such eventuality," he stressed, adding that he would report all issues to the state Governor and, if required, to the Supreme Court as well.
SEC writes to DGP about potential death threat: The SEC has written to the DGP, complaining against the statements made by the chairman Federation of State Government Employees, Venkatrami Reddy, who has been allegedly vehemently opposed holding the panchayat elections. The SEC has cited Venkatrami Reddy’s statements as “a potential death threat”. According to the SEC, Venkatrami Reddy allegedly said, “The Constitution has given a right to every individual to defend their life. In continuance of this right, the Constitution has given the right to kill.”
In the letter to the DGP, the SEC said, “The Commission views this as most provoking and an unfortunate comment and a potential death threat issued against the Commissioner in his personal capacity."
Ramesh Kumar asked the DGP to take cognisance of this and keep a close watch on the activities of Venkatrami Reddy, as they were likely to lead to events and situations resulting in physical harm to the SEC.
A few employee unions have asserted that they will go to polls only after receiving two jabs of the vaccine, and have declared that their life is more important than the elections for them. They also questioned Ramesh Kumar as to why he didn't conduct the elections in 2018 itself, when they were first supposed to have been held when the tenure of the local bodies expired, under the previous TDP government.
The local body polls were then scheduled for March 2020, but Ramesh Kumar postponed them in view of the pandemic. This event led to a major standoff between Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy and Ramesh Kumar, which continues till date.
At the time, Jagan had accused Kumar of acting at the behest of TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu, during whose tenure he was appointed. Jagan even tried to replace Ramesh Kumar, but he was eventually reinstated as the SEC after the intervention of courts.
With just two more months left in his term as the SEC, Ramesh Kumar is keen on conducting the polls, which the state government is opposing. The Supreme Court may take a call on the Andhra government's petition to postpone elections on Monday.
With inputs from PTI and IANS