A day after the Andhra Pradesh High Court gave the green signal to hold panchayat elections, the state government has written to the State Election Commissioner (SEC) Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar urging him not to proceed further with the elections right away. In a letter to the SEC, Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das asked him to await the Supreme Court hearing on the special leave petition filed by the government challenging the High Court order.
The CS said that the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) has come into effect immediately after the HC judgement. However, he requested the SEC to arrive at a revised schedule in compliance with the HC order, which asked the SEC and government to ensure both the COVID-19 vaccination and the panchayat elections are conducted smoothly and successfully.
The SEC had announced that the panchayat elections will take place in four phases, on February 5, February 9, February 13 and February 17. Following the announcement, the state government moved the High Court against the decision, stating that the government machinery would be busy with the vaccination drive in February. Several government employee associations had also protested the decision, expressing concern for government officials involved in the polling process.
In his letter, the Chief Secretary mentioned that “in the context of various apprehensions expressed by the police department … and a large number of employees who would be in the forefront for the conduct of elections,” the state government would be ready to conduct the elections 60 days after the first round of vaccination of frontline personnel who will be involved in the polls (including police and revenue officials), after they develop effective immunity.
The Chief Secretary also mentioned that the government will convey a date for meeting with district and state officers to finalise the logistics of the elections as well as vaccination, as per High Court orders. Yet, he remarked that the SEC should have undertaken a “meaningful consultation” with the government to assess its preparedness announcing the election schedule.
The Chief Secretary also took objection to the SEC’s decision to suspend joint director G V Sai Prasad for breach of code of conduct, and surrendering of secretary to the SEC, senior IAS officer Vani Mohan, to the state government. He said that the state government has posted certain officials to the State Election Commission, “despite the fact that some of the officers have been removed by the SEC without following any due procedure.” Das said that the sate government is “considering follow up action on the arbitrary action taken by SEC against its staff.”
“With regard to your instructions to remove the so-called tainted officers, we would like to inform that the officers are actively involved in the pandemic situation of Covid-19 and are right now engaged in the implementation of vaccination programme … The observations of the Commission that the senior officers made reprehensible comments is misplaced, as Government have highest regard towards the State Election Commission. The Government is taking appropriate action to give required staff to the SEC and will be informed shortly,” Aditya Nath Das wrote.