During her time, former Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney refused to meet and discuss the issue of the local body elections with State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar. She simply sent a message that the local polls cannot be held as per the SEC schedule. But, the present Chief Secretary Adityanath Das is following a different approach altogether though his mission is the same as that of Nilam Sawhney.
The High Court had recently ordered the Chief Secretary to send three top officials to discuss the issue of elections with the SEC. Now, Adityanath himself personally went and met the SEC. Two other top officials, Anil Kumar Singhal and Gopalakrishna Dwivedi, accompanied him.
Adityanath told Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar clearly that the Government is not ready to hold the elections in February. The vaccination and other programmes are there to be held. It is not yet known what the response of the SEC was.
The Jagan regime’s game plan is clear that if Nimmagadda goes ahead with the polls, it will once again go to the court. By that time, Nimmagadda will retire and Jagan can hold local polls under the next SEC of his Government’s choice.
