AP local body elections almost ruled out in February?

The State Election Commissioner of the state of Andhra Pradesh, Nimmagadda Ramesh, has been trying his best to conduct the local body elections in the state for quite some time now, but the ruling YSRCP party is not interested in conducting the local body elections any time soon.

Panchayat raj principal secretary Gopalakrishna Dwivedi filed a petition in the AP High Court on behalf of the government, against the decision taken by the SEC to conduct the Panchayat elections in February. In his petition, Dwivedi stated that it is highly impossible to conduct the elections in February, and named SEC secretary Vani Mohan as the respondent in the petition.

The government had previously said that trying to conduct the elections goes against the Supreme Court’s orders, which explicitly state that the first priority right now should be the safety of the people of the state, and that conducting elections right now would be in violation of that very order.

Dwivedi also pointed out that 6,700 people died because of Coronavirus in the state of AP in the last 6 months, and that the SEC should be considerate of that fact, and wait to conduct the elections.

Ever since the SEC announced the local body elections, the Andhra Pradesh government has expressed strong objections to conducting the elections, citing Coronavirus. However, several sources reveal that the government does not want the local body elections to be conducted as long as Nimmagadda is the SEC. It is now to be seen what will happen from now on.