VIJAYAWADA: The State government on Monday put the ball in the Centre’s court, asking it for advice on how to conduct the Covid vaccination drive and panchayat elections simultaneously. Hours after the Supreme Court refused to entertain government petition against State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar’s decision to hold panchayat elections next month, Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das sent a letter to Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary explaining the State’s predicament.
Drawing the Health Secretary’s attention to the poll process underway, the Chief Secretary said around 5 lakh staff will be deployed on poll duty and they include personnel from police, panchayat raj, revenue and education departments.
“The same frontline workers will be deployed to multiple locations at different polling stations... the issue is more acute in case of police who are only 73,188 but have to be deployed to 1,35,000 polling stations. Each police personnel will have to be deployed to 3 polling stations on an average on rotation by moving them from one location to another,” he explained. Simultaneously, all the polling staff are deployed away from their place of work and residence as per the Election Commission guidelines.
SC says SEC has to hold polls, cites Kerala example
“The State Election Commission has to hold the elections,” it remarked, while citing the example of Kerala to highlight that elections have taken place amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The bitter tussle between the State government and the State Election Commission seems to have concluded with the Supreme Court refusing to intervene in the matter. It all started in November 2020 when SEC Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar announced to hold the panchayat elections in February 2021.
Initially, citing possible second wave of Covid-19 and later stating that the entire official machinery would be involved in Covid vaccination drive, the government wanted the elections to be deferred. In the following days, a bitter legal battle ensued and the tussle reached climax with the SEC releasing the election schedule hours after an official delegation led by Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das explained why the elections could not be held in February. Following that the government approached the Supreme Court only to be told it would not intervene in election matters.