In what could be seen as a big blow to the YSRCP government of Andhra Pradesh, the Supreme Court has given the green light to local body elections. It has struck off the petitions filed by the government of Andhra Pradesh as well as employee unions to halt the local elections.
After the Supreme court judgment, the government of AP announced that it is going to abide by it. Its advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy said, “The Government of Andhra Pradesh is to obey the orders of the SEC and polls for the local bodies to go as per the schedule.”
The Andhra Pradesh government and state election commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh have been at loggerheads for almost a year regarding the conduction of local body elections. Recently, the High Court of Andhra Pradesh supported the state election Commissioner after which he issued notification for local body elections. However, the government of Andhra Pradesh as well as employees’ unions decided to go to the apex court to halt the local body elections. The Supreme Court on Monday lambasted the employees’ unions and questioned why the employees’ unions are interfering with the process of local body elections.
On the other hand, Andhra Pradesh State Election Commissioner N. Ramesh Kumar has written a letter to the Union Home Secretary in the wake of the latest Supreme Court order. Ramesh Kumar has sought the deployment of the Central Government staff and officers to facilitate the peaceful conduct of the elections. The SEC told the Union Home Secretary that the employees’ associations were clearly saying that they would take part in the election duty. To this effect, the employees’ leaders have made public comments which were reported in the media. The associations’ leaders were giving the coronavirus vaccination as the main excuse for their unwillingness to cooperate with the SEC. Considering all these things, Ramesh Kumar has requested for Central staff. There were previous instances in the past when the Central staff was deployed in some states when there was a threat to law and order during elections.