Notwithstanding the strong resistance from the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government, state election commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar on Friday night announced the schedule for the conduct of elections to gram panchayats in February in four phases.
The first phase of elections for gram panchayats would be held on February 5, second phase on February 9, third phase on February 13 and fourth phase on February 17.
The notifications for these four phases of elections would be issued on January 23, January 27, January 31 and February 4 respectively.
Nimmagadda also announced that the model code of conduct will come in force from Saturday, as per the directions of the Supreme Court which said the code can be enforced four weeks before the election process.
Ramesh Kumar said there was no strength in the argument of the government in seeking deferment of the local polls.
“First, the government said there is a second Corona wave and also a winter spike. But it did not materialise and the incidence of daily infections has come down significantly,” he said.
He further said near normalcy had returned with the opening up of commercial and educational spheres of activity and political mobilization too was going on at a large scale without visible observance of social distancing.
“Now, the government wants deferment of elections on the pretext of vaccination, which is a continuous process. In fact, the phase-III of vaccination programme will extend up to 2022. Hence, elections cannot be postponed till then,” he said.
Protesting Nimmagadda’s decision, principal secretary (panchayat raj) Gopalakrishna Dwivedi said the SEC had announced the schedule without caring for the lives of the people in the Covid-19 pandemic situation.
“The SEC defied the directions of the Supreme Court, which said the state election commission should decide the schedule only after consulting with the state government on its preparedness. But Ramesh Kumar held talks for the name sake and went ahead with the poll schedule with mala fide intentions,” Dwivedi said in a statement.
“The commissioner take into consideration the suggestions given by the state government, which said the conduct of elections was not possible as the entire government machinery would be busy with the vaccination programme,” he alleged.
