Andhra Pradesh state government eager to complete the process with new SEC

Amaravati: The state government is planning to go for MPTC and ZPTC elections immediately after the appointment of new State Election Commissioner (SEC) on April 1. The government is said to be preferring to complete the election process along with Tirupati Lok Sabha byelection to concentrate fully on Covid-19 vaccination programme.

It may be noted that the present SEC N Ramesh Kumar ruled out conducting of MPTC and ZPTC elections by the end of his term on March 31. The SEC deferred the elections due to legal issues and demand from opposition for fresh notification. He cancelled the MPTC and ZPTC elections schedule on March 15 last year due to Covid pandemic.

Now the state government is facing a fresh problem of death of candidates who filed nominations for MPTC and ZPTC elections last year. It is said 87 MPTC candidates and 13 ZPTC candidates, including 41 candidates from YSRCP have died since March last year. These include those who were declared unanimous winners.

According to the ruling party sources, the government wants to hold MPTC, ZPTC elections setting aside the seats where the contesting candidates died and there is no possibility of nomination of fresh candidate as it would delay the election process. The panchayat raj officials are also getting ready to conduct polls.

Meanwhile, the government directed the officials to administer oath of office to elected sarpanches on April 3.

Of the total 10,047 MPTC seats in the state, the State Election Commission issued notification to conduct elections for 9,692 MPTC seats leaving the unanimous seats.