Andhra Pradesh state election commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar, who has been under severe attack from YSR Congress party leaders including chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, for postponing the local body elections in the state on the pretext of Coronavirus scare, is learnt to have decided to shoot back at his critics.
According to reports doing rounds in a section of media, Ramesh Kumar has decided to file defamation cases against all those who had abused him in foul language and made a personal criticism against him naming his caste.
It may be mentioned that several YSRC leaders used strong language against Ramesh Kumar for postponing the local body elections allegedly at the behest of Telugu Desam Party led by N Chandrababu Naidu.
For instance, YSRC parliamentary party leader V Vijay Sai Reddy described Ramesh Kumar as a dog who was seated on a golden throne and said he should be called “Naravari Gabbilam” (a bat of Nara family). MLA Kapu Ramachandra Reddy called the SEC as a “vedhava” (stupid) with Kula Gajji (caste scabies).
Even assembly speaker Tammineni Sitaram called Ramesh Kumar a “gadida” (a donkey). Many others like Botsa Satyanarayana, Vellampalli Srinivas and others attacked the SEC using strong words.
While Ramesh Kumar, in his letter to chief secretary Nilam Sawhney, expressed his anguish for being attacked so harshly by his critics, he is learnt to have decided to drag all of them to the court by filing defamation cases.
He reportedly collected all video clippings and media coverage of the comments of these leaders and would attach the same with his petition to be filed in the high court.
However, it is not clear whether Ramesh Kumar would also file any such defamation case against Jagan Mohan Reddy, who alleged that the former had acted only according to the script prepared by the TDP president who also belonged to the same caste and was appointed during the Naidu regime.