AP Local Body Elections: SEC meeting with govt. officials likely to be cancelled yet again

Andhra Pradesh State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar has once again written a letter to Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney. It also mentioned the setting up of a video conference with collectors, Zilla Parishad CEOs and district panchayat officials on Thursday morning. It was decided to convene a meeting to discuss the panchayat elections.

Arrangements have been made for a video conference at the SEC office. On the other hand Collectors and superiors have not been allowed to participate in video conferencing till now. It is learnt that the video conference meeting was cancelled yesterday as the collectors were not given permission. The SEC office has arranged for a video conference to be held between 10 am and 12 noon today. It seems that the collectors have not been given any permission by the government so far.

Officials at the SEC office said they would wait up to 12 noon to hold the videoconference and will believe that the government has not given permission for collectors to attend by then. There is widespread interest in how SEC would do, if today's video conference is also cancelled.

It is known fact that the state election commission has decided to conduct local body elections in February 2021. However, the chief secretary of Andhra Pradesh government has wrote to SEC stating that It is not possible to conduct elections in February citing the coronavirus outbreak and increasing number of cases. Meanwhile, SEC Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar met governor Biswabhushan Harichandan and briefed over the latest developments over Local Body Elections