There’s nothing new to be said about the dispute between the Andhra Pradesh government and the Andhra Pradesh SEC Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar. They have not seen eye to eye ever since Nimmagadda postponed the general body elections in March, owing to the rapid spread of Coronavirus in AP.
Following that, the AP government tried its best to remove Nimmagadda from office, but Nimmagadda fought hard with the help of the Judiciary and reassumed his post. Even after all of that, there’s never been an understanding between the SEC and the government.
As the coronavirus situation in AP has eased a little, Nimmagadda has decided to go ahead with the local body elections, but the governemtn has not been cooperating with him. When Nimmagadda filed a petition on the same issue, in the High Court, the government immediately released the required funds for the elections, and said that the SEC never consulted them for anything.
Now, Nimmagadda has called for a meeting with all the political parties of the state, and has sent out notices to all of them. Obviously, YSRCP has also received the notice, but it’s very difficult to say if Jagan’s party will respond to this notice, and attend the meeting.
Sometime ago, it was said that Jagan is planning to postpone the local body elections until next year, by when Nimmagadda’s term will be over. It is now to be seen if the government will cooperate with another constitutional institution like the SEC, as per the High Court’s request, or if it will continue to ignore the SEC like always.