Andhra Pradesh Local body elections likely to get delayed

Amaravati: The proposed local body elections including Panchayats and Municipalities in the State may get delayed, due to various reasons including the pending cases in High Court.

As the government is planning to hold the Assembly Budget Session next month, it will be difficult to hold the elections, observed a senior IAS officer at the Secretariat. If the election code is in progress, then the government is not allowed to take any policy decision. In the Budget session, the government has to make many policy decisions.

The Budget itself is a major policy tool to implement welfare schemes and attract voters.

In fact, the government has expected that the High Court may pronounce judgment by February 25. Hoping so, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy promulgated the Ordinance by amending certain sections in the Panchayat Raj Act. While discussing the Ordinance during the last cabinet meeting, it was observed that if the HC would give the judgment to conduct the elections by clearing the issue on reservations, then the elections could be completed within a short span of time by enforcing the newly proposed amendments.

On the other hand, the YSRCP leaders expressed confidence in winning the elections with a great majority. Speaking at Meet the Media programme recently, Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, Advisor to Government (Public Affairs) said that Jagan has confidence in the public that they will vote for the YSRCP. He said that Jagan was not a person of cheating the public by saying one thing and implementing another thing. "Jagan has been implementing all the promises given during the election campaign. He has been working to ensure corruption-free elections", said Sajjala.

It is worth mentioning that Jagan himself stated in the recent cabinet meeting that, "There was no meaning in encouraging alcohol and note for the vote, despite implementing these many welfare schemes under Navaratnalu".