Telugu Desam Party leaders had been under the impression that Andhra Pradesh state election commissioner Varla Ramaiah was their man, because of his direct confrontation with YSR Congress party government led by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Apparently, they thought the SEC would favour them in the local body elections, after seeing the outcome of the gram panchayat elections, they have started criticising Nimmagadda for not favouring them.
They alleged that the SEC had miserably failed to prevent the highhanded behaviour of the YSRC and had not acted on the complaints made by the TDP.
On the other hand, Nimmagadda was all praise for the officials and the police machinery for the “smooth” conduct of gram panchayat elections.
Keeping this in mind, TDP leader Varla Ramaiah tried to run down Nimmagadda at the all-party meeting held by the latter at Vijayawada to discuss the arrangements being made for the municipal elections.
While Nimmagadda was requesting the representatives of all political parties to cooperate with the commission in holding the municipal elections in free and fair manner by following the model code of conduct, Varma Ramaiah tried to shout at the SEC.
This led to heated arguments between Nimmagadda and the TDP leader. The SEC expressed anger over Ramaiah repeatedly interrupting him.
He asked the TDP leader to get out of the meeting and when the latter continued to argue, he called the security people to send the TDP leader out.
While Nimmagadda said the political parties should act responsibly in the elections, Ramaiah alleged that the SEC was not acting impartially as he was doing in the past and had succumbed to the ruling party’s pressures.
“There was no seriousness in the all-party meeting and it was conducted in a routine manner. The SEC refused to listen to my complaints that the ruling party leaders were intimidating the TDP workers and assaulting the candidates,” he said.
He said there were several doubts over the functioning of Nimmagadda of late.
“He is behaving atrociously and is refusing to act on our complaints,” Ramaiah said.
