Corona Cases Cross 600, CMO in Touch With EC for Local Polls

Coronavirus cases in Andhra Pradesh are at 603 now and eleven out of the thirteen districts of the state are demarcated as hotspots. A report in Deccan Chronicle says the Government priorities are different. The report said the Government is keen on issuing a new schedule at the earliest after the Lockdown ends on May 3rd.

Municipal Administration, Commissioner, G Vijayakumar raised the issue in a high-level meeting with the CM and told him how South Korea conducted elections for their National Assembly even during the Pandemic. “When a large-scale Nationwide election can be conducted, there should be no issue for Local Polls,” the official advised the CM.

The CM reportedly agreed with that and the CMO is said to have been coordinating with the State Election Commission over the schedule. The Government already shunted out the previous State Election Commissioner, N Ramesh Kumar to conduct the elections on the Chief Minister’s terms.

Around half a dozen states in the country have postponed various elections. Even the Rajya Sabha elections are postponed until this disaster is mitigated. There is a condition in Maharashtra that the CM should resign if he is not elected as MLC by May 28th. But there is no squeak about election anywhere except in Andhra Pradesh.