When YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy accused state election commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar of dancing to the tunes of Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu because both belonged to the same caste, he was criticised by his political rivals.
Subsequently, many times, YSRC leaders alleged that Nimmagadda had deferred the local body elections in March and decided to conduct polls in February now, under the directions of Naidu.
As if to prove their allegations correct, the TDP chief on Saturday came out with a series of do’s and don’ts for Nimmagadda to follow in the conduct of local body elections, thereby virtually dictating terms to the SEC.
Naidu asked Nimmagadda to summon Central armed forces to conduct the gram panchayat elections under their control, instead of the local police.
He also demanded that the SEC accept nominations online considering the previous experiences of intimidation and threats from the ruling party.
Another demand put forth by Naidu is that the village volunteers should not be involved in any aspect of the election and polling process in view of the severe political influence on them.
The TDP chief also demanded the removal from election duty of all those officials at all levels for whose removal the SEC had already recommended.
He also waned that the ruling YCP party flag colours on the government buildings should be urgently removed to facilitate a free and fair election.
“The unanimous elections forcefully made in the past should be revoked. For all such seats, fresh elections should be held,” he suggested.
The ultimate demand of Naidu is that chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy should be confined to his Tadepalli residence till the election code was lifted.
