The ongoing tussle over AP local body elections

The AP government has decided to contest the ruling of the AP High Court in favour of the SEC move to hold panchayat elections in the state. A Division Bench of the High Court has ruled in favour of the elections after a single judge bench ruled against the elections allowing the contention of the government to prevail that elections could not be held as the anti-corona vaccination has begun in the state and that it would take away all the energy and time of the government.

Whatever could be the interpretation of political parties on the ruling in favour of the elections, it brings down curtains, for the time being, on the contentious issue that kept both the SEC and the State government pre-occupied in war of words at every turn.

The issue has been rocking the State since the day the SEC proposed elections on March 7 last year to the MPTCs and ZPTCs. Two days later it issued another notification for holding the elections to the civic bodies in the State. The notification for holding elections to the panchayats was to come up on March 15, when the SEC decided to halt the same after complaints from the opposition midway. Next came the move of the government which cut short the term of the SEC and appointed a former judge to the office.

The SEC knocked the doors of the Supreme Court against the decision and got an order in favour of it. The SEC immediately went ahead and began consultations with the political parties to continue the election process. The latest order of the High Court is on predictable lines as the Election Commission is an independent body and once the election schedule is announced, there is little that anyone could do against the same. But what is not understandable is the hype around the local body elections. There is little for the ruling party to be afraid of the elections as it has used its welfare schemes to penetrate almost all sections of the society.

The YSRCP has been in power for just over a year and there is little for it to worry about. Yet the unseemly tussle went on with both the Government and the SEC acting in haste and against each other. Both the parties to the litigation sound logical in questioning the moves of the other. They sound so because the logic has only been reversed by both to the extent that they just swapped the other party's arguments with theirs. The litigation sounded more like an ego clash.

Local body elections are for the larger good of the state. When the State government is spending humongous amounts of money on welfare, it is always advisable to have elected people's representatives at every level including the ZPTCs and MPTCs and panchayats and civic bodies to make the money reach the right beneficiaries.

The ruling party in Andhra Pradesh should remember that it is only through elections and a democratic process that it has come to power with a big margin and majority of seats. The SEC can only conduct the elections, not influence the voting pattern!