Looks like the cold war between the AP state government and the State Elections Commissioner is not likely to end soon, as the SEC Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar is hell-bent on conducting the polls prior to his retirement. On the other hand, the state government too does not want to hold the elections before the retirement of the SEC and hence decided not to co-operate with the election commission. Even the employees were coerced into saying that they were not ready for the elections. This kind of a situation in AP has never been heard before in the past. However, in this scenario, the EC released a notification for elections to be held. This led to various groups in government vent their anger towards the attitude of the SEC. The government has even approached the court based on the EC’s behaviour. In these circumstances, it has to be seen as to what would happen? Will the EC be able to organize the elections without employees? How will the court deal with the issue? These are the questions arising in everyone’s mind right now.
No hearing needed
It is known that the Supreme Court had dismissed an online petition seeking the postponement of local body polls in Kerala. This issue has now turned a topic of serious discussion. The petition filed by Kerala MLA PC George was taken up by a bench headed by Justice Lavu Nageswara Rao. However, the Supreme Court refused to entertain the petition filed by the MLA. While the MLA informed the Apex Court about the notification issued amending Article 27/A that allowed COVID patients and those above 65-years to vote via postal ballots. However, the MLA said that this was not being followed by the State Election Commission. To this, the Supreme Court did not show interest. Now the same situation appears to be taking place in Andhra Pradesh too. But in AP, the government is filing a plea against the postponement of elections. In such a situation, it would be interesting to see how the court would respond.