The local body election tussle has turned into State Election Commission versus State Government. SEC Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar is retiring in March and wants the elections held during his tenure. The AP Chief Minister is also reluctant to hold the elections ahead of Nimmagadda’s retirement and mulls approaching the High Court with a house motion petition against holding elections in the wake of Corona.
Already the election matter has reached the court on several occasions. The court directed officials to discuss and return if no consensus was made. The three-member committee of the government officials said that the government cannot conduct elections in the present circumstances. Though the talks ended there, the SEC surprised everyone by announcing the schedule for the election.
Either it is a local body or general elections, it is not possible without the support of the government as thousands of personnel are needed. EC has the responsibility to conduct elections with the support of the government but in AP, there is a war going on between SEC and government for the last ten months.
Nimmagadda stopped elections in March last year because of Corona. He was removed by the government and a new SEC Kanagaraj was appointed. Nimmagadda approached the court and got back his post and since then there is a cold war going on between the SEC and the Government in the State. Nimmagadda wants to have an election before his retirement.
The government does not want to support elections until Nimmagadda is in power and it is likely to take up elections within a month after the retirement of the SEC. it wants to stop the election by any means till Nimmagadda is in the office.
There are many Constitutional bodies in the country but thinking that they have powers is nothing but an illusion. The EC cannot take up elections without the support of the government as it would require funds, resources and staff to hold the elections. With differences between the SEC and government, both are trying to show supremacy over each other. There is no harm to the people with the conflicts between both the groups as they are enjoying the fight between the two. Leaders believe that the government cannot do as it desires, if Nimmagadda is the SEC, hence it was trying to stop the process by any means.
It was a war-like situation during the nomination process last year. In many places, the opposition party candidates could not file nominations and there were allegations that the police supported the ruling party. It is believed that the ruling YCP may resort to the same thing by appointing a new official. The YCP leaders are contemplating getting their candidates elected unanimously in more than half of the villages. At a time when the elections are organized when there is opposition to the government, it would result in a big jolt to the ruling party hence they want to capture the local bodies by ensuring there are no nominations by opposition parties either by threatening or luring them, said opposition parties.
