Tirupati/Vizianagaram, Feb 5: YSRCP leaders slammed State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh for withholding the results of unanimous elections in Chittoor and Guntur districts
and said no-poll contest is an age-old practice.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy said that SEC Ramesh Kumar will face the consequences for being biased towards TDP Chief N Chandrababu in gram panchayat elections. He said the unanimous results will depend on the people of that village and questioned why the SEC is holding back the unanimous election results. Even Presidential, MP, MLA, and MLC elections would be unanimous, and there is no point in halting the results he said adding that SEC has been laying restrictions on panchayat elections which doesn’t fall under election code.
The Minister said that SEC Ramesh Kumar has been working only for the interests of Chandrababu Naidu to save TDP from getting extinct expecting a return favour. He stated that Ramesh had launched the eWatch app developed by the TDP, with Chandrababu’s idea and further welcomed the AP High Court’s decision to stop the usage of the eWatch till February 9. More than 90 percent of the YSRCP-backed candidates will win in the election and advised the returning officers to stick to the principles rather than supporting the SEC with evil intentions. The Minister said that an incompetent person was appointed as the SEC who does not even know the basic thing on how to get his vote transferred.
Meanwhile, speaking at a separate press conference Minister for Municipal Administration Botsa Satyanarayana said that SEC Ramesh Kumar has taken a hasty decision in halting unanimous polls in Chittoor and Guntur districts for benefiting TDP. He said that nearly 1980 villages panchayat were elected unanimously in 2013, and even now a similar number of village panchayats are going to be elected unanimously without any incidents. In Chittoor, 293 panchayats were unanimous in 2013 polls, and now 112 are unanimous in the first phase of polls. Similarly, in Guntur, 162 panchayats have opted for unanimous election in 2013, while currently, 67 have come forward in phase 1.
The Minister said that Ramesh Kumar has taken the decision, as Chandrababu belongs to Chittoor and he himself hails from Guntur district. He flayed the SEC for not taking any action against TDP or Chandrababu on releasing manifesto for the Panchayat elections and instead announcing that the SEC had canceled the manifesto. He said Chandrababu has been politically influencing the SEC by blocking the government.
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