Jagan’s YSRCP boycotts State Election Commission meet over local body polls

The ruling YSRCP boycotted the State Election Commission (SEC) meet on Wednesday over the conduction panchayat polls in the state. With this, the tussle between SEC and the Andhra Pradesh government looks to be far from getting over.

The SEC Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar had been sacked by the state government over the postponement of local body polls “on the pretext” of Covid-19 in the month of March. Later, he was reinstated by the Supreme Court of India. His tenure is up to March 2021, until then the Government does not want any panchayat polls in the state.

YSRCP spokesman Ambati Rambabu issued a statement that his party would not attend the SEC meeting which, he said, was illegal and arbitrary. He accused Nimmagadda of being hand in glove with TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu.

However, Nimmagadda brushed aside the allegation of Ambati that the SEC had not bothered to meet the health officials and the government in the first instance.

He said he had invited representatives of all recognized political parties with reserved symbols. He called the parties one after the other in the wake of Covid-19 guidelines.

The SEC meeting was attended by representatives of all political parties, including TDP, CPM, CPI, BSP, and Congress. TDP’s newly appointed president of AP wing Atchannaidu slammed the YSRCP for not attending the all-party meeting called by the SEC.

Naidu said, “The adamant government even removed Ramesh Kumar and appointed former Tamil Nadu justice Kangaraju. Now, the Covid-19 situation has improved. The markets have been opened. The YSRCP government is ready to open schools from November 3 but is opposing elections citing the Covid-19 situation. This is double standards and highly hypocritical. The YSRCP knows that it is going to lose the polls, and therefore it is not keen on holding the elections.”