The circular issued by Andhra Pradesh state election commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar late on Friday night announcing the schedule for the gram panchayat elections in the state appears to be a political statement.
The circular clearly displays Nimmagadda’s utter contempt for the Jagan Mohan Reddy government and reflects his personal animosity towards the chief minister and the ruling party.
Instead of sticking to the announcement of election schedule, Nimmagadda tried to find fault with the Jagan government for opposing the elections on lame excuses.
He pointed out that the state government hitherto sought postponement of elections citing a second Corona wave and also a winter spike.
He said near normalcy had returned with the opening up of commercial and educational spheres of activity. Political mobilization too is going on at a large scale without visible observance of social distancing.
“A few of these 'super spreader' events in the socio-political sphere could have been best avoided in terms of the advisory of the Centre,” he said.
Nimmagadda sought to ridicule the Jagan government for altering the grounds of postponement of elections citing vaccination programme as the reason, since the second wave and a winter spike cited all along by the government as grounds of postponement did not materialize.
“The wheel has made a full now with the government vehemently seeking postponement now, while earlier it fought for holding elections with equal vehemence,” he said.
Nimmagadda also made a reference to the statement made by YSRC general secretary V Vijay Sai Reddy in Srikakulam, without naming him, that local body elections will be held only after Tirupati LS bye polls, either in April or May and that party cadres should be well prepared.
It clearly shows that the SEC’s decision to hold elections in February before his tenure expires in March is politically motivated and reflects his stubborn mentality!
