The Andhra Pradesh high court on Tuesday threatened the Jagan Mohan Reddy government of serious consequences, if it did not cooperate with State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar in holding the local body elections.
The court pulled up the state government’s defiant stand towards the State Election Commission (SEC), the Constitutional Institution. It asked the government to fulfil the requirements of the SEC and submit a compliance report within three days.
Now, the question that is being discussed in the political circles is what would happen if the Jagan government is firm on not holding the elections to local bodies as long as Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar is in the seat at the SEC, on the pretext of Coronavirus pandemic.
If the court gives green signal to Nimmagadda to issue a fresh election notification, there is every possibility that the Jagan government would challenge the order in the Supreme Court to obtain the stay.
It will drag the issue for a couple of weeks. If the government gets a favourable order from the Supreme Court, it is well and good. Even if the SC upholds the high court order and asks the SEC to conduct the elections, the whole exercise will take a few more weeks.
The state has every chance to file a revision petition in the Supreme Court to drag the issue further. Even if the SEC announces a fresh schedule to conduct the elections, the Jagan government may not extend the necessary help to conduct the polls.
If the officials defy the SEC order, the latter has no option but to move the court seeking remedy by moving the high court. And if the government gets negative order again, it has the option of challenging it again in the SC.
The SEC may not go to the extent of seeking dismissal of Jagan government for violating the court order.
“All this process will take a few months and by that time, the term of NImmagadda would be over,” sources said.
