Hold Panchayat Elections: AP High Court To SEC

The Andhra Pradesh High Court today asked the YSR Congress Party-led state government and the State Election Commission (SEC) to hold the Panchayat elections in a hassle-free manner, soon.

The HC, which heard the arguments on the appeal filed by the SEC two days back, delivered its verdict today.

(The SEC had approached the court to repeal an interim order issued by a single judge suspending the election process in the state.)

In its verdict, the court made it clear that the elections for the rural local bodies in the state were as important as concerns of public health amidst the ongoing pandemic.

It said that there were no "logical and pragmatic reasons" to stay the conduct of the elections.

"The conduct of elections are critically important to the life of a democracy, as per section 9 and 9A of the Indian constitution. The people have the right to elect their public representatives. The state government should realise that the final decision to hold the elections lies with the SEC, which has the same powers as the Central Election Commission," the bench hearing the matter said.

"If the local body elections are held, the elected representatives will surely take the ongoing Covid-19 vaccination process forward, so requests to stay the elections hold no water - there is simply no logic behind the appeal of the state government to postpone the elections in the name of the vaccination drive," it added.

Reacting to the development, TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu expressed his happiness over the verdict of the court.

He alleged that Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy acted as if he did not even require the SEC to run the state, and that the latter would not even want the Assembly elections to be held.

"Jagan does not have any respect for any kind of institution in the country. The CM who wanted to hold elections during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic is now trying to postpone the elections when Covid-19 deaths have dropped drastically in the state," Naidu said.

"The ruling party is scared of losing power, and so was trying to stay the elections. Its fear of elections is reflected by the fact that it encouraged an unprecedented number of unanimous elections in the local bodies," he added.