The AP government got a big relief as the High Court suspended the schedule announced by the State Election Commission for the conduct of local body elections. The High Court believed that the election would come in the way of the distribution of corona vaccination as the AP government AG argued that both the programs cannot be taken up simultaneously. After inquiring for two hours, the court suspended the schedule.
There is a war going on between the State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar and the government. During March last year, the SEC cancelled the local body elections without consulting the government. Since then, a cold war broke out between the government and the SEC. The government removed SEC Ramesh Kumar and appointed Kanagaraj. Nimmagadda approached the High Court and got back his post but the tussle continued.
It appears that the SEC Nimmagadda wanted to conduct elections before his retirement in March and also announced the election schedule on 8th of this month. Chief Secretary Adityanath Das approached the Court stating that the vaccination program was going to be taken up and, in this time, elections cannot be held.
Once the Election Commission releases the schedule for the election, courts cannot interfere but the High Court suspended the schedule. Senior legal luminaries are stating that never in history such decisions were taken by the courts. It is learnt that initially, the SEC would appeal in High Court. According to experts, based on the judgment from the High Court division bench, there are chances that the SEC may approach the Supreme Court.
The Andhra Pradesh government received a big relief in the High Court. After many cases, the government got a favourable judgment from the court. It can be said that the efforts of AP CM to stop the elections till March are likely to benefit. YS Jagan’s close aide and Rajya Sabha member Vijay Sai Reddy hinted that the local body elections would be held in April, which means that the state government is more afraid of Nimmagadda than Corona. The opposition parties alleged that the government is afraid that the SEC may not allow intimidation tactics of the ruling party leader hence it was not taking up elections. It can be said that the war between the two has come to an end.
