The YSRCP will challenge in the Supreme Court the State Election Commissioner N. Ramesh Kumar’s order postponing the local body elections by six weeks citing the threat posed by coronavirus, according to party national general secretary and Rajya Sabha member V. Vijaya Sai Reddy.
Addressing the media here on Sunday along with district in-charge and Agriculture Minister K. Kannababu, Tourism Minister Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao and others, Mr. Vijaya Sai Reddy accused Mr. Ramesh Kumar of taking a unilateral decision without consulting the Chief Secretary, the Health Secretary and other officials on the prevailing health situation in the State.
Mr. Reddy alleged that Mr. Ramesh Kumar, appointed as SEC during the TDP rule, was dancing to the tune of its president N. Chandrababu Naidu. He said that the reasons cited by Mr. Kumar for the “extraordinary decision” were “unfounded and based on presumptions and assumptions.”
“On moral grounds, Mr. Kumar should step down for murdering democracy,” Mr. Reddy demanded.
‘Situation not alarming’
Only one person who had visited Italy and contracted the disease there was undergoing treatment in an isolation ward in Nellore. The situation was not at all alarming as the SEC and the TDP were trying to portray, he said.
Anticipating a severe drubbing, the TDP had been crying foul since the beginning, he said, and reiterated the charge that the SEC decision was aimed at saving the “sinking boat” of the TDP.
Dig at Kanna
Mr. Reddy termed BJP State president Kanna Lakshminarayana, who sought postponement of the elections due to spread of coronavirus, as an “agent of Mr. Naidu.”
Mr. Kannababu and Mr. Srinivasa Rao contested the basis on which the SEC took the decision to put off the elections by six weeks, and alleged that there could be a conspiracy to deprive the State the allotment of over ₹5,000 crore by the Finance Commission.
