Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu might have developed cold feet over contesting the zilla parishad and mandal parishad elections fearing yet another humiliating defeat, but he could successfully prevent the victory of the YSR Congress party in the elections at least for a few weeks.
The Andhra Pradesh state high court on Tuesday suspended the elections to the mandal parishad territorial constituencies (MPTC) and zilla parishad territorial constituencies (ZPTCs), scheduled to be held on Thursday (April 8).
Acting on a petition by the TDP and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the state high court said the state election commission (SEC) had not followed the Supreme Court guidelines that the model code of conduct should be in force at least four weeks before the polling date.
The high court ordered that the notification issued by newly-appointed SEC Neelam Sawhney on April 1 within hours of taking charge be suspended and all the actions taken thereafter be withheld.
As per the high court directions, a fresh schedule be announced in such a way that elections be held only after enforcing the model code of conduct for another four weeks.
However, the court did not react on the demand for issuance of fresh poll notification, in place of the earlier notification issued in March 2020, so that the process commences afresh all over again.
