Late realisation: Jagan extends Special Officers’ rule?

Everybody knows that out of political reasons, the Jaganmohan Reddy government removed Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar from the post of State Election Commissioner just because he postponed local polls. Jagan Reddy even criticised at that time how the polls could be postponed citing reasons of Coronavirus which was nothing but a fever that could be cured with paracetamol and bleaching powder. But now, the same YCP regime has now issued a notification extending the special officers’ rule in local bodies, giving reasons of Covid infections for this decision. The polls are postponed till January 3.

With the latest decision, it became clear that the government has no plans for holding elections immediately. Actually, the special officers’ rule came to an end for the municipalities on June 30, corporations on March 10 and for panchayats on July 2.

Finally, the late realisation dawned on the YSRCP government as Coronavirus was refusing to relent. In the latest notification, the government extended special officers’ rule in municipalities till January 2. Separate dates were given for Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Prakasam and Kadapa districts.

Obviously, local polls are not in Jagan Reddy’s list of immediate priorities. Previously, he thought of bagging 90 per cent local polls. Based on that massive mandate, the CM planned to silence the Opposition parties on 3 Capitals and also to shift Capital to Visakhapatnam as early as possible. As the multiple Capitals game got stuck in the High Court now, the government seems to have changed its plans a little bit.