The YSR Congress party government in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday filed a petition in the state high court stating that it is not possible to conduct the elections to urban and rural local bodies in the state in February in view of the Covid-19 situation.
On behalf of the government, panchayat raj principal secretary Gopalakrishna Dwivedi filed the petition in the high court challenging the decision of state election commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar to hold the elections in February.
Dwivedi said Nimmagadda had made the announcement unilaterally without consulting the state government. He made SEC secretary Vani Mohan as the respondent in the petition.
The government said the SEC announcement was against the directions of the Supreme Court, which clearly said the primary responsibility of the government during the Covid-19 pandemic was to safeguard the public health.
Dwivedi pointed out that more than 6,700 people died due to Covid-19 all over the state in the last six months.
“The SEC has deferred the elections to the local bodies in the initial stages of the pandemic. Now, when the situation has turned from bad to worse leading to thousands of cases, the SEC wants to conduct the elections,” he said.
Stating that the SEC decision was highly objectionable, the government appealed to the state high court to direct the SEC to stop the process of conducting the elections to the local bodies immediately.
