Putting all speculations and doubts to rest, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kishan Reddy on Friday confirmed that State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar had sent a letter to Union Home Secretary apprehending a threat to his life and that of his family members.
Kishen Reddy stated that the home ministry took cognizance of the letter and Ramesh Kumar’s fears that there was a threat to his life following the postponement of elections to civic bodies in Andhra Pradesh
On March 18, a five page letter addressed to Union Home Secretary purportedly written by Ramesh Kumar stating that he and his family had been receiving repeated warnings and endless threats from the members of the ruling party was in circulation. Doubts were raised if the letter was written by the State Election Commissioner with the ruling YSRCP accusing the TDP behind the letter. The YSRCP leaders alleged that the letter was not written by the SEC, but in fact was drafted and circulated by the TDP from the party office in Amaravati.
In the letter, Ramesh Kumar noted that ever since the State Election Commission as a constitutional authority took the decision to defer the elections by six weeks there was an unprecedented assault on him and the State Election Commission “by no less than the Chief Minister who had attacked me in most vitriolic and offending language casting aspersions and prejudice in his press meet on 15.03.2020.”
Kishen Reddy on Friday said the home ministry asked state government to provide necessary police protection to the state election commissioner. “Currently, the state election commissioner is in Hyderabad and we have asked the Telangana government to provide adequate protection to him. No government can target officials representing constitutional bodies. The Home Ministry has taken a serious view on this and directed the state government to provide police cover to the SEC,” Kishen Reddy stated.
In the run up to the elections to local bodies, Ramesh Kumar in his letter to Union Home Secretary noted that there were widespread incidents of violence perpetrated by the ruling dispensation against the opposition parties, mainly the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Jana Sena workers and activists right in the presence of the police. “The State had witnessed unprecedented violence and intimidation by the ruling party with the active connivance of police personnel as alleged by all the opposition parties big and small in one voice,” he wrote
The violence was further heighted after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy issued a diktat to his ministers that they will be stripped of their berths and MLAs will be denied tickets if the YSRCP were to lose the civic body elections. “This had spurred the Ministers, MLAs and party cadres into frenzy and indulge in large scale violence and intimidation indulged with impunity and widely captured both in electronic and print media leaving the citizens aghast,” the election commissioner wrote in his letter.
Following the letter, the YSRCP government had stepped up security for Ramesh Kumar and was accorded 4+4 security cover in place of the earlier 1+1 security. Chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, in fact, held consultations with state DGP Gautam Sawang on the issue even as AP Government Advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy called Ramesh an insane person who was acting like a TDP activist and Chandrababu agent and not as election commissioner. “If SEC really wrote the letter, he should admit it if he has any courage. Why is Ramesh giving a chance to Chandrababu Naidu to politicise the letter issue,” he questioned.
With Kishen Reddy confirming that Ramesh Kumar indeed had written a letter to Union Home Secretary and that the Home Ministry took serious view on this, all doubts have now been put to rest.
