Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy received yet another jolt with the local body elections being postponed once again. An announcement to this effect has been made by the State Election Commission.
State Election Commissioner Justice V. Kanagaraj issued a notification stalling the local body elections till further orders, in the wake of High Court orders and in view of the ongoing lockdown. Information about the same has been conveyed to the district collectors, election officials, government higher officials and High Court registrar.
Reddy hoped that the new SEC V. Kanagaraj, a close associate of the CM, would act as per his directions and hence, shifted him to Amaravati from Chennai without observing the quarantine norm even when the new SEC is an elderly person vulnerable to the Covid-19. At that time, the entire nation was under lockdown.
Earlier, the local body elections were postponed by former SEC N. Ramesh Kumar in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. On March 15, Kumar announced that a decision on when the elections would be held would be taken after reviewing the situation six weeks later and that deadline ended on April 26.
The High Court issued orders to the state government to remove the YSRC party flag colours on the village panchayat offices. The court made it clear that local body elections should be held only after removing the YSRC party colours on the buildings and the process is yet to be completed.
In view of the HC orders and uncertainty on when the lockdown would be lifted the SEC declared postponement of elections.
