Andhra Pradesh state election commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar might have thought he has pushed the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government to a corner by issuing the notification for the panchayat raj elections.
But the fact is that NImmagadda himself is facing a tricky situation now, with the state government refusing to cooperate with him in the conduct of elections and the government employees announcing a virtual boycott of the election process.
The question is what the SEC can do, if the district collectors and police officials do not attend the video conference of Nimmagadda and the officials at the revenue division level refuse to be appointed as returning officers.
When there are no officials at the ground level to receive nominations and scrutinise them and when the teachers and other employees refuse to act as polling officers including presiding officers and assistant presiding officers? What can SEC do if the department doesn’t arrange polling stations at the village level?
Nimmagadda has warned of serious action against those who do not cooperate with the SEC in the conduct of elections.
“What can he do? He can at the most suspend a few senior officials. Can he suspend thousands of government employees with one stroke?” asked Andhra Pradesh state government employees federation chairman Chandrashekar Reddy.
He said no employee was worried about any suspension.
“At the most, they would be suspended for two months. The moment Nimmagadda steps down as the SEC, the suspended employees would be back. He is only going by false prestige, but not caring for the welfare of employees,” Reddy said.