In the light of the Supreme Court dismissing Andhra Pradesh government’s appeal to defer rural local bodies elections and allegedly no arrangements being made by the district administrations, State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar revised the election schedule to make Phase II, Phase III and Phase IV polls as Phase I, Phase II and Phase III elections.

“Phase II, Phase III and Phase IV gram panchayat elections notified in the said notification dated January 23 will become Phase I, Phase II and Phase III respectively,” ordered Kumar.

Kumar highlighted that he received information from several quarters that necessary arrangements were not made by the district administrations to receive nominations scheduled from Monday for Phase I elections.

According to the notification issued on Saturday, nominations for the first phase of the four phase elections should have begun on Monday.

“The State Election Commission came to a conclusion that the election process has been vitiated as the district administration has not made arrangements for receiving nominations for the Phase I gram panchayat elections scheduled from Monday,” he said.

Meanwhile, the SEC issued new dates for Phase IV elections, whose polling will be held on February 21.

According to the rejigged schedule, nominations for Phase I election will begin from January 29 while the elections will be held on February 9.

Phase II election is scheduled on February 13 and Phase III on February 17.