Nilam Sawhney, the new State Elections Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh, has gotten her first shock from the High Court, after the HC released a notification, asking Sawhney to stop all procedures regarding the Parishad elections.
Many petitions have been filed in the HC, asking the elections to be stopped and postponed because they violate the Supreme Court orders. The High Court is said to have not agreed to cancel the consensus that was taken in 2020, even though it asked the SEC to file an affidavit regarding the issue by the 15th of this month.
Back when Nimmagadda was the SEC in 2020, he issued notifications for the Parishad elections to be conducted last March. However, this did not happen due to Coronavirus. As the plan was postponed, the AP government was angry with Nimmagadda and even tried to replace him with Kangaraj. The government’s plans failed when Nimmagadda fought back and continued to stay the SEC of AP.
Initially, when Nimmagadda planned to conduct the local body elections of the state, the state government showed great resistance, but with the intervention of the courts, the government had to finally give in and cooperate with the SEC. After Nimmagadda’s retirement on March 31st, Nilam Sawhney took his place on April 1st. The AP government had recommended the candidature of Sawhney, and her notification regarding the Parishad elections, dated April 1st, has now been cancelled.