The YSR Congress party government’s attempt to see that the process for the conduct of elections to mandal parishad and zilla parishads in the state be completed before March end received a setback in the state high court.
A division bench of the state high court on Tuesday refused to issue interim orders directing state election commissioner (SEC) Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar to complete the process for the conduct of MPTCs and ZPTCs before March 30.
Stating that the announcement of schedule for the elections was the sole prerogative of the state election commission, the court asked the government and also the respondents to file their counter in the case and posted it to March 30 for further hearing.
The SEC has already submitted to the court that it was examining the issue of conducting the elections to MPTC and ZPTC posts and it would take a call on the schedule at the earliest.
The high court also agreed with his argument said it cannot direct the SEC to fix the dates for the elections.
So, going by the court order, these elections to the mandal and zilla parishads cannot be held during the regime of Nimmagadda.
The government has to wait till the appointment of the new SEC, who in turn will decide on the fresh schedule.
Nimmagadda has been strongly opposing the unanimous election of a large number of MPTCs and ZPTCs belonging to the ruling YSRC.
Out of 660 ZPTCs and 9,984 MPTCs in Andhra Pradesh, as many as 126 ZPTCs and 2,363 MPTCs were elected unanimous during the beginning of the election process in March 2020.
The SEC, in his affidavit filed before the high court, pointed out that the number of unanimous results were extraordinary compared to the earlier elections.
He said the commission had received numerous complaints about threats and temptations during the filing of nominations.
There were largescale complaints to the SEC from the Telugu Desam Party and BJP that the ruling YSRC had grabbed these MPTCs and ZPTCs forcibly by threatening the contestants of other parties.
They alleged that the YSRC leaders had prevented the rival candidates from filing their nominations and in case of those who had already filed their nominations, the ruling party forced them to withdraw their nominations.
However, the high court recently dismissed all these petitions and directed that all the candidates who had been elected unanimously must be declared elected immediately. It said the SEC cannot interfere after the candidate was declared elected.
