In a big hurry, new State Election Commissioner Nilam Sawhney issued election notification on the first day of her taking charge yesterday. In the same hurry, the BJP leaders have filed a house petition before the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, seeking dismissal of the Nilam poll notification. The court took up immediate hearing and asked Nilam Sawhney to file the SEC counter on the issue by tomorrow.

The High Court has also heard the petitions filed by three other candidates. They sought a fresh notification so that they would be able to file their nominations. The court took due note of this. As such, Nilam Sawhney would now have to file her counter in the court by tomorrow.

The petitioners have also told the court how Nilam Sawhney has issued the notification without holding the all-party meeting as per the election process. It was after issuing the notification, she held the all party meet.

Obviously, in her counter, Sawhney would repeat the same story that she has been saying in the past two days. It is that there is no point in starting the elections afresh since the process had already begun in March last year. The same nodal officers would continue this time also. Since this is the first case since she became the SEC, all eyes are on the High Court order tomorrow.