Andhra govt. moves High Court over SEC's all-party meeting, says it is against Supreme Court order

Ahead of Andhra Pradesh State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar's meeting with all parties in the state regarding the conduction of local body elections, the AP government has filed a House Motion Petition in the High Court. In the petition, the government sought to stop the holding of the SEC All-Party Conference and has mentioned in its petition that the SEC is holding a meeting with political parties without consulting the state government, which is contrary to the Supreme Court orders. The state government has asked the high court to stay the meeting of the state election commission as it is going against the orders of the supreme court.

Meanwhile, YSRCP decided not to attend the meeting organized by SEC. "The election commission has to know whether there is a possibility of holding local body elections," Ambati Rambabu said. He said it was not right to arrange a meeting without taking the government's view on the elections.

It is known that there is a war like situation between the government and State Election Commissioner in Andhra Pradesh after Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar has postponed the local body elections in March citing the Coronavirus outbreak, which led to the uproar from the government. The government on the other hand has brought an ordinance and removed Nimmagadda from the post. However, he moved High Court and got the verdict in his favour and reinstated as the state election Commissioner.

The all party meeting will held today and the government has moved court and it remains to be seen who will get the upper hand on the local body elections. As the term of Nimmagadda would end in March, YS Jagan is contemplating not to hold the elections till then.