VIJAYAWADA: Newly appointed State Election Commissioner (SEC) Nilam Sawhney is expected to announce the dates for the MPTC/ZPTC elections within a day or two after assuming office. Sawhney is expected to take charge as SEC from incumbent Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar on March 31.The State government is keen on completing the MPTC/ZPTC elections so as to shift its focus to the Covid vaccination drive in the wake of the spike in the number of cases in the recent past.
As the government is of the view that the leftover process of the MPTC/ZPTC elections requires only six days, the completion of the same will enable the official machinery to concentrate on the administration and take effective measures for controlling the spread of coronavirus.
In fact, Government Advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, while finding fault with the SEC Ramesh Kumar for not conducting the MPTC/ZPTC elections citing Covid vaccination and other silly issues as an excuse, mentioned that the State government would approach the new SEC and request the commission to complete the election process at the earliest.
Observing that the elections may be conducted in two phases in the first fortnight of April, sources said that though the outgoing SEC mentioned that it requires to enforce the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) for four weeks, it will not hamper the process of elections to be announced by the new SEC. The Supreme Court passed the said directions while setting aside the directions of the SEC to enforce MCC till the completion of elections while postponing them indefinitely in March, 2020.
At that time, the Apex Court was of the view that imposition of the MCC would not be justified if the elections were postponed. The intention of the Apex Court was to allow the State government to carry out its activities by lifting the MCC. The chances of the interference of the courts is less once the SEC announces the schedule for the MPTC/ZPTC elections.