Jagan seeks appointment of amicus curiae to supervise local body polls in Andhra

Tadepalli (Andhra Pradesh): Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and YSR Congress Party President Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday accused the NDA government in the state of not honouring the Supreme Court directives in connection with the conduct of local body elections and sought an appointment of an amicus curiae to supervise the polls.

Accusing the TDP-led coalition of continuing its mocking of democracy, he also demanded deployment of central forces and CCTV coverage of the election process.

Addressing a press conference, YS Jagan said the Chandrababu government is not honouring the apex court directive and is going ahead with the anarchy in the local body elections by continuing its attacks on YSRCP candidates and snatching of ballot papers.

Alleging that police were acting with bias, he claimed that the basic structure of democracy was being threatened, pushing the state towards a constitutional crisis.

The YSRCP chief remarked that the script in the ZPTC and MPTC nominations is no different from the elections to urban local bodies, as YSRCP candidates, including women, were attacked, threatened, and nomination papers snatched and torn away.

He released a book titled ‘Pachamookala Dadulu’ (attacks by yellow mobs), which is a compilation of pictorial evidence of the attacks. The QR code of the book would be made available to all those who want to safeguard democracy, and will also be submitted to the Courts, he said.

“We have been reporting all incidents to the concerned officials and will also move the Courts as democracy is at stake with the prevailing anarchy, and the TDP is rigging the nominations even by filing papers on behalf of YSRCP to add up to the number and mislead the Courts. They have also forged the signatures of our candidates and announced the withdrawal of nominations,” he said.

The former Chief Minister said that in the prevailing anarchy, the Court should order the appointment of an amicus curiae to supervise the elections, besides deployment of central forces, video recording of the election process and providing protection to all contesting candidates.

“When the elections are being held on party basis, and when we released the list of our party candidates, where is the necessity for not allowing anyone to file nomination papers?” he asked, adding that the State Election Commission (SEC) has been undermining the Supreme Court directives and has cherry-picked a few centres to allow re-nominations.

He said while YSRCP complained that nominations were obstructed in 19 municipalities, the SEC considered a handful of wards in four urban bodies — Tirupati, Kadapa, Rajampeta and Mydukur.

YS Jagan alleged that the government has been playing all the tricks to keep the opposition away from the fray by rejecting nominations during scrutiny and resorting to all kinds of malpractices. He lauded the efforts of the YSRCP cadre, which stood against the tide to save democracy, and said that in the coming days, all erring officials will have to bear the consequences.

Listing out the attacks on party candidates and leaders, YS Jagan said, MP Y.S. Avinash Reddy was arrested from the Party Office in Kadapa, and former Deputy Chief Minister Narayana Swamy was attacked in Chittoor.

“We have reported the bias of officials to the SEC, but no action was taken, which shows that Chandrababu is pulling the strings as he is afraid of the results, as he failed to fulfil his poll promises,” he said.

He claimed that YSRCP has conducted local body elections despite adverse conditions of the Covid pandemic and a hostile SEC. He said the people had then voted for YSRCP with a decisive mandate as it had rolled out the welfare programme and had effectively reached out to the people.