The Andhra Pradesh State Election Commission has announced that the local body polls, which were earlier postponed for a period of six weeks, will remain postponed until a situation conducive for conducting elections is restored. They were earlier scheduled to take place between March 20 to 29. While the decision was made in light of the COVID-19 lockdown which has been extended up to May 17 nationwide, the election notification can only be issued once the state government removes its party colours from various government buildings (including gram panchayats).
The election process for MPTCs (Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies), ZPTCs (Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies), municipalities, municipal corporations and nagar panchayats and gram panchayats was halted by former State Election Commissioner (SEC) N Ramesh Kumar, just a week before the nationwide lockdown was first announced on March 24. Ramesh Kumar had noted multiple reports of poll-related violence, and alleging police inaction, recommended the transfer of the police officers involved.
In what became a controversial tussle between the YSRCP government and Ramesh Kumar, the former promulgated an ordinance amending the AP Panchayat Raj Act, 1994, shortening the SEC’s tenure from 5 to 3 years. This happened soon after a letter from Ramesh Kumar to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had surfaced, alleging threat to his own life and his family from the ruling YSRCP government.
In the aftermath of this, Ramesh Kumar was abruptly removed from his SEC post, and replaced by former Madras High Court judge, Justice V Kanagaraj. Soon after Justice Kanagaraj’s appointment, Leader of Opposition Chandrababu Naidu slammed Chief Minister Jagan for holding meetings with officials to discuss the possibility of holding the local body polls during the pandemic.
While the Andhra government challenged the decision to postpone the local body polls in the Supreme Court, it was upheld on March 18. The SC also asked the state election commission to have a post-decisional consultation with the Andhra Pradesh government before notifying the next date.
But the election process is also dependent on another factor -- an order from the Andhra Pradesh High Court dated March 10 had directed the state government to remove YSRCP party colours from panchayat buildings within three weeks from the date that the lockdown is lifted and only then hold local body elections.
Further, since the latest lockdown orders from the state government say that no public gatherings can be allowed in any zone until May 17, the local body election process continues to be withheld.