Andhra Pradesh State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar met Governor Biswa Bushan Harichandan on Tuesday to apprise him of the recent developments.
On Monday, the High Court stayed the gram panchayat poll schedule announced by the SEC, in the wake of a government plea. The State had opposed the move to conduct polls in February in view of the pandemic and vaccination drive.
According to information, in a one-on-one meeting, Mr. Ramesh gave a “confidential report” to the Governor. The Commission did not divulge the details of the meeting.
In another development, Commission Secretary Vani Mohan was relieved from duty and asked to report to the State government. Commission’s Joint Director G.V. Sai Prasad was already suspended after he went on leave at the crucial time when the Commission announced the local body polls. Mr. Sai Prasad, the senior-most functionary after the Secretary and vested with the administration duties of the Commission, placed a leave letter for a month and deserted his station.
The discussion points with Governor, sources say, include the SEC Secretary’s role in the mass leave applied by the Commission’s staff. A bundle of leave applications were submitted to the Commission recently. All the applications, which were in a proforma format, were written “due to coercion”.
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