VIJAYAWADA: Even as State Election Commissioner (SEC) Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar on Friday sprang a surprise by releasing the schedule for elections to Gram Panchayats in February, besides enforcing the Model Code of Conduct from Saturday, there is a question mark over the polls now as the Centre announced the first phase of Covid-19 vaccination drive from January 16.
When contacted by TNIE, Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das said that the State Task Force for Covid management and vaccination is likely to meet on Monday to take stock of the directions of the Centre and the directives of the State Election Commission. The Task Force will consider everything, including the deployment of employees for the vaccination drive, and make recommendations to the government, he added.
Though the State government’s stand is that elections cannot be conducted now as the official machinery needs to focus on Covid vaccination, the SEC seems to be firm on his stance. Sources close to Ramesh Kumar said that he is confident of dealing with the situation despite employees’ threat of boycotting the election duties. Even before the announcement of the roll-out of vaccine by the Centre, APNGOs and other employees’ unions opposed the SEC move and threatened to boycott election duties if the schedule was not revoked. Speaking to mediapersons, APNGOs State president N Chandrasekhar Reddy said that the SEC should withdraw the decision to conduct panchayat elections.
“If not, we will boycott the election duties and even approach the court. Corona spread in Telangana and Bihar after elections were held there and it was unfair on the part of the SEC to release the poll schedule when the nation and the State are facing threat from the new UK virus strain and bird flu,” he said.Reddy felt that conduct of elections at this juncture may result in more number of people and employees contracting Covid. Hence, the SEC should postpone the elections till the vaccination drive is completed, he said, and sought to know whether the SEC will give guarantee to the lives of employees on election duty.
Denouncing the SEC decision, the AP Police Officers’ Association said that police cannot take up bandobast for elections until the completion of vaccination drive. In a statement, the association said that 14,000 police personnel tested positive for Covid and still several of them are undergoing treatment. The police need to discharge several responsibilities during the vaccination drive. Attending election duties without completion of the vaccination drive may put the lives of police, their families and people at risk, the association said.
Accusing SEC Ramesh Kumar of taking a unilateral decision on conduct of panchayat polls, AP Employees Joint Action Committee chairman Bopparaju Venkateswarlu felt that it is not proper to conduct the elections now and demanded that the SEC withdraw his decision. Finding fault with the statements of employee union leaders demanding the SEC to postpone elections, TDP senior leader K Kala Venkata Rao said that it was unfortunate that they are backing Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy forgetting the verdict of the Supreme Court that the Election Commission is supreme in the issues related to polls.
TDP MLC P Ashok Babu opined that it was unfair on the part of employee unions to speak against the conduct of elections. Instead, they should focus on the welfare of government employees by raising issues related to Dearness Allowance and Pay Revision Commission report, he said. “There is no wrong if the employee unions respond on social issues, but they should not speak on elections,” he said, and questioned why they are not commenting on the conduct of the by-election to Tirupati Lok Sabha constituency.