The Andhra Pradesh surprisingly is witnessing some off the Constitutional heads claiming “Discretionary Powers” to go against the decisions of the newly-elected State government.
It was for the second time that the State had seen a constitutional head claiming to have used the discretionary powers of his office while postponing the local body elections.
Shockingly, the discretionary powers are used against the government and they are in line with the Opposition TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu.
The TDP chief is not able to digest his defeat and the victory of Jagan Mohan Reddy in the 2019 general elections. He seems to be using every institution to go against Jagan Mohan Reddy, if the series of incidents are to be analyzed.
It was first the chairman of the AP Legislative Council M A Shariff who claimed to be using his discretionary powers to refer the two bills relating to the decentralization of administration and repeal of the APCRDA Act to a select committee.
He admitted that he was using his discretionary powers though there was no request or motion for the same and it was against the rule position.
Chairman being the TDP MLC had used the discretionary powers to please his party chief Chandrababu Naidu who opposed the two bills for political reason.
The use of discretionary powers by the Council chairman had led to the Assembly resolving seeking its dissolution which is now pending before the Central government.
Now, the State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar, a retired bureaucrat, had also used his discretionary powers to postpone the local body elections citing the prevalence of the corona virus.
The SEC had no reports on the seriousness of the virus either from the State government or the Central government and there was no piece of advice to defer the elections.
Still he used his discretionary powers to postpone the elections for six weeks, without taking reports from the Health Secretary or the Chief Secretary or even the DGP.
Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar, was appointed as the SEC in April 2016 by Chandrababu Naidu government and as the AP Legislative Council chairman, the SEC also used his discretionary powers to please his former boss.
Ramesh Kumar’s family was benefited by Chandrababu Naidu as his daughter Saranya was appointed as director in the AP Economic Development Board and Ramesh Kumar’s discretionary powers are seen as a return gift to the TDP chief.
So in both the cases in the AP, the heads of the constitutional bodies used the discretionary powers only to please their boss and go against the present government.
It was time for the two heads to thank their master, Chandrababu Naidu, who wants his decisions to prevail in the state and Jagan’s decisions to derail.
Thus, Chandrababu Naidu, while sitting in opposition is able to manage the institutions successfully to his advantage.
But the fact is that people are watching these games in the social media and will teach a lesson or two by using their discretionary powers as they did in 2019 general elections.