As expected, the Jagan Mohan Reddy government seems to be in no mood to hold elections to local bodies anytime soon.
With the State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar preparing to hold local body polls in state, the YSRCP party leaders have clarified that the government will not conduct the elections in November.
Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar called for an all party meeting on October 28 to discuss various aspects of holding elections. Now with the Central and state governments easing Covid restrictions, Ramesh is planning to hold deliberations with all the political parties for conduct of local body elections.
Industries minister Mekapati Gautam Reddy spelled out his government’s stand on holding elections.
After attending a meeting of the State Level Bankers Committee in Tadepalli, Gautam Reddy said currently the Covid-19 situation has improved with the declining caseload. However, he predicted a second and even third wave of Covid-19. The minister, as if he had a crystal ball, said the cases will increase in November. “Elections in states like Bihar are mandatory and we have some leeway for local body elections,” he said. Last month, the Andhra Pradesh government had even filed an affadavit in the High Court stating that local body polls should not be held in view of Covid-19.
The local body elections were cancelled in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. Ramesh Kumar was removed as SEC by the state government following his decision on March 15 to postpone the local body elections that were scheduled to be held in the last week of March.
Ramesh Kumar had cited the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent lockdown as reasons behind his decision, but chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy and state chief secretary Nilam Sawhney vehemently opposed his decision. Ramesh Kumar’s decision to postpone the local body elections had stirred a hornet’s nest in state politics.
The Jagan government had promulgated an ordinance reducing the term of the state election commissioner from five years to three and Ramesh Kumar was removed from the position.
The Andhra Pradesh government overnight appointed retired Madras High Court judge justice Kanagaraj as the chief election commissioner. Ramesh Kumar had challenged his termination and the appointment of Kanagaraj in his position in the AP High Court which ruled in his favor dismissing the state government’s ordinance for constitutional validity. Ramesh Kumar was later reinstated as SEC.
