With state election commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar unilaterally announcing the schedule for conducting gram panchayat polls in February, everybody is curious as to what YSR Congress party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy will do now.
There are no indications about the government’s strategy in the statement released to the media by principal secretary of panchayat raj department Gopala Krishan Dwivedi last night.
But there have been reports that Jagan might move the Supreme Court to obtain stay on the SEC circular and stall the election process for now.
It wants to drag the issue as long as it can, so that the elections could be postponed to April by which time Nimmagadda will relinquish his post.
However, there is also a talk that the Jagan government will not cooperate with the SEC in the conduct of the gram panchayat elections. The government will simply dump all the circulars of the SEC and ignore him.
If Nimmagadda orders transfer of any official, the government will not implement them, as it did in March, when he ordered transfer of Kadapa and Guntur collectors. He will also ask all the employees and officials not to take any orders from the EC.
Such non-cooperation process has already begun on Saturday with the state employees’ unions announcing boycotting of local body elections.
Expressing anger over the SEC for announcing the schedule without consulting the employees, they unanimously resolved not to cooperate with the SEC in the elections.
“How can the SEC announce the schedule without taking into consideration the views of the employees? We can take up the polls only after the completion of vaccination process. The SEC action only reflects the vengeful attitude towards the government,” they said.
What can Nimmagadda do if the employees don’t cooperate? He will have to move the court again to get the directions.
The government will challenge them in higher courts and that will continue for a few more weeks, so that Nimmagadda has to step down without conducting the polls!
