Eyebrows raised as SEC invites TRS, MIM, AIDMK

VIJAYAWADA:  The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), all parties based outside Andhra Pradesh, are among the political parties which are invited to the meeting convened by the State Election Commission (SEC) to discuss the possibility  of holding local elections in the State, on Wednesday. 

The parties, along with other major players like the ruling YSRC, Opposition TDP and BJP, Jana Sena Party, Congress and the Left, were invited for one-on-one meetings spanning 10 minutes each. During the meeting, State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar will elicit the views of the parties on the possibility of conducting the local body elections.However, the decision of the SEC to invite these “outsider parties” came as a surprise with some leaders wondering as to how parties having no base in the State can be invited for deliberations over holding local bodies elections. 

Mincing no words, YSRC official spokesperson Ambati Rambabu asked as to how the SEC, without holding talks with the government on conducting the elections, can invite the parties, which neither have any existence nor contested a seat or won a seat in the State, for the meeting. 

“SEC Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar has staged yet another political drama. How can the SEC invite political parties before deliberating with the Chief Secretary on the preparedness of the State in holding the elections? This is against the Supreme Court verdicts. This is a conspiracy involving the SEC and Opposition leader N Chandrababu Naidu,’’ the YSRC leader alleged.Rambabu said the Supreme Court had clearly said that once an election process is stalled, the Election Commission shall take into consideration the views of the State government before taking a decision on conducting elections again.

“By inviting political parties before holding discussions with the State government, it is clear that the SEC has a different agenda,’’ he said. Rambabu wondered as to how the SEC, which had earlier postponed the elections when three Covid-19 cases were reported in the State, can start the process of holding elections when the State is recording nearly 3,000 cases a day. 

Rambabu announced that the YSRC will boycott the meeting as it is going to be held in violation of the SC verdict and without consulting the government. Expressing a similar view, a senior CPM leader wondered as to what made the SEC invite parties like TRS and MIM (both based in Telangana) and AIADMK (Tamil Nadu) for the meeting when they do not have any hold at the ground level.

The TDP had earlier made it clear that it would attend the meeting and seek security of the Central forces for the local body elections. BJP state general secretary S Vishnu Vardhan Reddy said Paka Satyanarayana will represent the party in the meeting. The TRS was invited under ‘Recognised State Party in AP’ registered with the SEC while AIADMK and AIMIM were invited for being ‘recognised State parties in other States’ registered with the SEC.