Hours after the Andhra Pradesh State Election Commissioner (SEC) Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar on Saturday issued a notification for the four-phase panchayat polls, the state government employees associations representatives threatened to boycott the elections because of the pandemic.

The employees representatives said they would see how many employees the SEC terminates.

“Government employees in Andhra Pradesh have risked their lives to control the coronavirus. Instead of appreciating, you are threatening to terminate and suspend us. We oppose this step. If you go ahead with the state panchayat polls, chaos may prevail across the state. So please cancel your election notification,” said an employees representative.

The Andhra SEC on Saturday notified the schedule for four phase rural local body elections whose nomination process would begin in the next two days.

The employee drew attention to the special care Kumar took while addressing the media earlier on Saturday. He had fixed a glass partition on his table and wore a mask to protect himself from the virus.

“Is your life so important without caring for our lives. While addressing the media, you spoke from behind a glass, all the people in the state watched it. Should we discharge election duties and lose our lives,” he asked the Andhra SEC.

He warned the SEC that if he goes ahead not paying heed to the appeal by the employees, then he would face difficulties.

“So do not scare us and cause paranoia. We will see how many employees you will terminate,” he said.

The representative reminded the SEC about what he did more than two years ago when the panchayat polls were supposed to be held then.

“Why didn’t you conduct the elections back then. Why are you trying to kill all of us by conducting the elections amid the pandemic,” he added.

He appealed to Kumar not to risk the lives of employees, adding that they would undertake election duties only after receiving the vaccination jabs.

Another employees representative said that they are scared at the rapid pace at which the SEC is proceeding to conduct the polls amid the pandemic and the gigantic vaccination drive.

“I appreciate the care Kumar took for himself to ward off coronavirus by fixing a glass partition. Will he provide similar protection to employees?” he asked.

Despite taking similar care, he said, many employees succumbed to the virus, including a general medicine professor in a medical college in Visakhapatnam.

Mandating the employees to urgently take up election duty amid the pandemic is a huge discouragement as most of them are waiting to receive the vaccine.

Another representative said that the SEC postponed the polls in March 2020 when there were fewer infections but is eager to conduct them when the vaccination drive is taking place.

“People are not ready to cooperate, officers are not ready to cooperate. Life is more important, take back your decision. It will not be good if the SEC goes ahead obstinately,” he opined.

These elections were originally supposed to be held in 2018 when the tenure of the local bodies expired back, but Kumar chose not to hold them.

However, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy thought of going to the polls in March 2020 but Kumar did not give the nod citing the coronavirus pandemic which led to a major standoff between the two.

THe Chief Minister accused Kumar of acting at the behest of opposition leader N. Chandrababu Naidu, during whose tenure as the Chief Minister he was appointed. Reddy had tried to replace him which backfired as the SEC has constitutional protection equal to a Supreme Court judge.

With just two more months to go as the SEC, Kumar is keen on conducting the polls which the state government has opposed citing the coronavirus pandemic and the vaccination drive.

The Supreme Court might take a decision on Monday on the state government’s petition to postpone the elections.

The courts may be constantly intervening but the cold war is continuing between the Jagan Reddy Government and State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar. The High Court may have ordered for conducting the local body elections. Still, the ruling party Ministers were criticising the SEC.

In the face of these differences, Nimmagadda has decided to depend solely on letter correspondence with the AP Chief Secretary and the AP Government. This will hold good throughout the local body polls. As such, the SEC is writing a fresh letter to the AP CS about the coordination meetings to be conducted on the poll process.
Towards this end, the SEC office has communicated that the elections will be conducted at the earliest. Ramesh Kumar is already holding meetings with his office staff on the fresh dates to be finalised for the future poll process.

Towards this end, the SEC is going to hold a meeting with the CS, the DGP, the District Collectors and SPs in a day or two. The whole problem is this. All these officials are under total grip of the YCP leaders. They are totally scared to cross the line drawn by the CM and his advisors. Now the big question is whether they would attend the SEC meeting or not.
If these top officials do not cooperate with the SEC, this time their actions will amount to the contempt of the court.

A controversy has erupted between the Andhra Pradesh government and the State Election Commissioner (SEC) Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar when the latter allegedly unilaterally declared the schedule for conducting the rural local body elections.

On Friday, state Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das wrote to the SEC that the halted rural local body elections could be resumed once the vaccination programme starts rolling and coronavirus is managed.

“Once this pandemic is tackled with vaccination, the state would agree to any schedule of resumption of the halted local election process. In view of the wellbeing of the people of Andhra Pradesh, the SEC may consider the request of state government,” said Das.

He met the SEC along with other officials to present the state government’s viewpoint. However, the SEC went ahead and declared the election schedule.

A host of ruling YSRCP leaders lashed out at Kumar for the decision at a time when the coronavirus pandemic is still raging and infecting people, including the new second wave emerging with the new strain.

“Everybody knows that Kumar is acting on somebody else’s behest along with a personal motive. What is unfortunate is that he is putting people’s lives at risk,” said Agriculture Minister Kurasala Kannababu.

The Minister alleged that Kumar is behaving in such a way that he wants his agenda to prevail at any cost, disregarding public health.

“At a time when there was no coronavirus effect, he postponed the polls. Now when the state government is highlighting that there is Covid and vaccination… even curfews in some cities, he has still unilaterally declared elections, indicating that he has a personal agenda or somebody else’s influence on him,” Kannababu opined.

He questioned why Kumar did not conduct elections during the previous Telugu Desam Party (TDP) regime.

“You behave in one way when Chandrababu Naidu was in power and another way when Jagan Mohan Reddy is in power,” Kannababu said.

A large number of government employees associations have also told Kumar to reconsider his decision in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

They highlighted that at present, during winter, when a second wave of the pandemic is feared to strike with a new strain, the SEC cannot go ahead with the panchayat elections ignoring the health and well-being of lakhs of families.