It is a clear battle of egos that is witnessed in Andhra Pradesh since March 2020, when State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar, a retired IAS, postponed the local body elections without any information to the State government.
It is alleged that Nimmagadda had done so at the behest of TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu, who made an open demand for the same.
Since then, the war is on between Nimmagadda and State government, headed by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
While Jagan Mohan Reddy accused Nimmagadda of serving his caste interests, the retired IAS officer, in his letter to the Union Home Ministry, had attributed faction and violence to Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The two have been engaged in legal battle for all these months, costing dearly for the State exchequer, as both pay for the advocates from the government pocket.
Now, with the AP high court, giving fresh orders in favour of the SEC, the retired IAS officer had served memos to two of the serving IAS officers, Gopala Krishna Dwivedi and Girija Shankar, both working in the Panchayat Raj department, for not attending his meeting.
The retired IAS officer had also issued orders transferring two more IAS officers, working as Collectors of Guntur and Chittoor, besides two IPS officers and four police inspectors.
The pity is that the SEC, despite his legal victory, could not hold a meeting on Friday with the state bureaucrats as he desired. They did not attend the meeting posted for the second time on the day, even after issuing a memo.
The SEC had now scheduled a press conference followed by release of election notification on Saturday. It is also to be seen how the SEC would make his move as the entire administration is not ready to fall in line with him.
