No feasibility to conduct Panchayat elections now, Andhra govt. to High Court

The Andhra Pradesh High Court heard the petition filed by an advocate over the panchayat elections on Friday where the government has said that the election for Panchayat Raj could not be conducted citing the coronavirus pandemic. However, the High Court commented that the same should be reported by the Andhra Pradesh election commissioner and issued the notices to Election Commission for not presenting for the hearing.

Meanwhile, the court noted that assembly elections were being held in other states and asked why panchayat elections should not be held in the state and adjourned the next hearing to November 2. Earlier, the Election Commission has issued a notification to hold elections in March, but the polls have been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak in the state. The decision taken by SEO Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar has caused a great deal of controversy in the state for his unilateral decision.

The government has sacked the state election commissioner Nimmagadda by bringing an ordinance. However with the series of hearings in the court over the petition file against his removal, he was reinstated as state SEC. Again now the High Court is hearing the petition over holding of panchayat elections. It has become interesting how the state election commission would respond to high court notices and the clarity on this topic is likely to come in the next month.

Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh government is contemplating not to hold the elections till March as the current state election commissioner will be completing his term. It remains to be seen will High Court orders state election commission to conduct elections.