The ongoing confrontation between Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh and state election commission headed by Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar has reached its peak.
Yhe Jagan government moved a house motion petition in the state high court seeking to stop the all-party meeting convened by Nimmagadda to discuss the possibility of conduct of local body elections in the state, stating that it was against the directions of the Supreme Court.
However, even before the high court took up the hearing, the SEC went ahead with its plan to meet all the party leaders, except that of YSR Congress party.
Senior YSRC leader and spokesman Ambati Rambabu has issued a statement that his party won’t attend the SEC meeting which, he said, was illegal and arbitrary. He accused Nimmagadda of being hand in glove with TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu.
However, Nimmagadda brushed aside the allegation of Ambati that the SEC had not bothered to meet the health officials and the government in the first instance.
He said he had already met the officials of the health department on Tuesday afternoon and would be meeting chief secretary on Wednesday.
Nimmagadda also refuted Ambati’s charge about the list of invitees to the meet.
He said he had invited representatives of all recognized political parties with reserved symbols. He called the parties one after the other in the wake of Covid-19 guidelines.
Most of the opposition parties which attended the meeting, including TDP state president K Atchan Naidu demanded that the SEC issue a fresh notification for local body elections in the state, in the wake of large scale irregularities that had taken place in the first phase.
