The guidelines issued by the Central government on administering of Covid-19 vaccine to the people in January and February came in as an excellent excuse for the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh to seek deferment of local body elections in the state.
On Tuesday, it submitted an additional affidavit in the high court stating that it would not be possible to conduct the elections to local bodies in February, as the official machinery would be busy with Coronavirus vaccination programme.
“As per the central government guidelines, the vaccination programme will be taken up in January and February. Not only the police department, but the employees of various other departments would be engaged in the vaccination programme,” the government said.
It pointed out that it would be a two-month programme, as second dose of vaccine should be administered after four weeks of first dose.
“Vaccination programme is as important as local body election process. In fact, the government has to give more importance to vaccination because it is an issue of public health,” the government said in the affidavit.
It may be mentioned that state election commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar has been adamant in conducting the elections to local bodies in February, but the Jagan government has been turning down his decision since it doesn’t want elections to be conducted under his regime.
There has been a virtual war of letters between Nimmagadda and the state government on the conduct of elections. Though chief secretary Neelam Sawhney had written letters to the SEC expressing inability to conduct the elections due to Covid-19 pandemic, Nimmagadda has been hell bent on going ahead with the schedule.
He even called for revision of electoral rolls and wanted to hold the video conference with district collectors to discuss the arrangements to be made for the conduct of elections. He moved the high court twice, alleging that the state government was questioning his authority as a quasi-judicial body.
The state high court has rejected twice the appeal of the Jagan government seeking a stay on the SEC’s decision conduct of elections to the local bodies in February. As a result, the government was in a state of dilemma as to what it can do.
Under these circumstances, the Central government’s guidelines came in handy for the Jagan government, which has now made it clear that it cannot conduct local body elections in February in view of the public health scenario.
It remains to be seen how Nimmagadda will react to this, as he sought time till Friday to file the counter. The case is deferred till then.
