Andhra Pradesh high court lifts stay orders; parishad polls to be held on Thursday

A division bench of the Andhra Pradesh high court on Wednesday lifted the stay on the parishad polls imposed a day before by a single judge bench.

While allowing the polls to be held as per the schedule on 8 April, the court has barred the state election commission from declaring the results till further orders are issued in the case.

The interim orders suspending the polls were issued based on the petitions filed by Janasena, BJP, TDP etc., leaders challenging the State Election Commission's schedule following last year's notification. The petitioners contested that, as per earlier Supreme Court ruling, the election code should have been in implementation for at least four weeks before the poll date.

The single judge stay orders were challenged by the SEC, which stated that the 28 day election code would not apply for the parishad polls.

The schedule of the local body polls was issued on 1 April by Nilam Sawhney, who took charge as the new SEC earlier that day.

The notification for the Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies and Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies polls was issued in March last year by the then SEC Ramesh Kumar and nominations were also filed. However, the polls could not be held at that time due to the spread of the Covid-19 infections in the state.

The opposition parties are demanding that the poll process be initiated afresh, alleging that the ruling YSRCP had resorted to violence and widespread intimidation disallowing other party candidates from filing nominations. The TDP has complained to the SEC that an unusually high number of seats were “unanimously elected.”

With the SEC deciding to go ahead with the polls despite the various objections raised, TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu has announced boycott of the polls.

Meanwhile, preparations are made for the elections to about 515 ZPTC and over 7,200 MPTC seats on Thursday.