The much-anticipated conduct of elections to rural and urban local bodies in Andhra Pradesh will not happen now, much to the disappointment of the ruling YSR Congress party.
On Wednesday, the Andhra Pradesh state election commission headed by Justice V Kanagaraj announced indefinite postponement of local body polls in the wake of Coronavirus pandemic situation and uncertainty in the lockdown period.
The local body elections which were supposed to be held in the last week of March had earlier been postponed for a period of six weeks by previous SEC Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar on the pretext of Coronavirus that angered chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and ultimately led to the sacking of Nimmagadda through an ordinance.
Now, the six-week period has come to an end and since there is no possibility of conducting elections to the local bodies in the present situation, the new SEC also had no option but to postpone the elections, until a situation conducive for conducting elections is restored, as per the Supreme Court directions.
At the same time, the state high court also ruled that the election notification cannot be issued unless the state government removes its party colours from various government buildings (including gram panchayats) within three weeks from the date that the lockdown is lifted.
Since the latest lockdown orders from the state government say that no public gatherings can be allowed in any zone until May 17, the local body election process continues to be withheld.
