The State Election Commission (SEC) had become a hard nut to crack for Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy in those initial days.
He was just 10-months in office by then, when SEC Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar, acted differently, not consulting the government, not asking the ruling party for its views, before postponing the local body elections.
Nimmagadda took the letters of TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu, Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan and CPI secretary K Rama Krishna, seeking cancellation of the elections.
Nimmagadda also went by the reports of the media which openly supports Chandrababu Naidu and his TDP.
Irked at this, Jagan took an extreme or rather inexperienced decision to send Nimmagadda home by bringing in a new Act.
It was his second such decision that exposed his inexperience. The first was the decision to abolish the Legislative Council.
Jagan brought an ordinance changing the law and got a Madras High Court retired judge Justice Kanagaraj to be the new SEC.
Things did not go well for him, as Nimmagadda hired leading advocates and the law was on his side, as Jagan’s decision was a hasty one.
Jagan fought two different battles, perhaps the toughest ones – the battle against Covid 19 and the battle against Nimmagadda.
As he spent a few months in office, Jagan realised that he was losing every battle, one after the other.
However, one hasty decision taken by Nimmagadda had come as blessing in disguise for Jagan.
Nimmagadda had surrendered IAS officer Vani Mohan, who was the secretary in the SEC.
The vacancy caused by the hasty decision of Nimmagadda had helped Jagan to plan differently.
He planted senior IAS officer Kanna Babu first in the SEC as secretary.
The second hasty decision of Nimmagadda was to declare that Panchayat Raj commissioner Girija Shankar was state election authority.
This had come handy for Jagan to make Girija Shankar ascertain his position. Besides, Jagan appointed two IAS officers – the Collectors of Chittoor and Guntur – as the State secretaries of Panchayat Raj and Rural Development departments, which share the responsibility to hold the local body elections.
With Kanna Babu in the SEC and Girija Shankar as the election authority, there was little space for Nimmagadda to move on and finally had to fall in line.
It was under these circumstances, Nimmagadda conducted the panchayat and municipal elections. The situation went to the extent that Nimmagadda himself had to say that he would not be able to hold the MPTC and ZPTC elections.
Now, as Nimmagadda exits, Jagan is bringing in his loyalist, Nilam Sawhney, to be the next SEC, to fall in line with the government for the rest of Jagan’s first term.