The local body election season has come to an end. The High Court on Monday quashed the notification issued by the state election commission regarding the panchayat elections.
Prolonged High Drama
The State Election Commission has issued a notification regarding organizing the panchayat elections in February. This led to an ongoing tussle with the prolonged high drama between the state government and the State Election Commission. The YSRCP has been demanding postponement of the local body polls citing that the Coronavirus vaccination drive would be held soon. While the opposition parties welcomed the decision by the SEC over organizing the elections. To this, the Chief Secretary Adityanath Das on behalf of the AP Government called for a boycott of polls.
Even employees, police personnel objected to the State Election Commission’s notification on holding the local body polls. The employees announced that many lives have already been sacrificed following the Covid19 pandemic and that more lives cannot be sacrificed, hence they also announced boycotting the election process. In this scenario, the AP government knocked the doors of the High Court, and having heard the arguments from both sides, dismissed the election notification issued by the SEC.
No elections for the time being
With the notification being suspended, there will not be any elections soon. While Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar will continue in his tenure as the SEC till March. It is also clear that the government has no plans of conducting elections till that time. Hence, the local body polls may not be held until March.
