The State Election Commissioner N.Ramesh Kumar had sparked yet another controversy in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Tapes of former TDP Union Minister and BJP MP, YS Chowdary , former Health Minister of AP during the TDP regime Kamineni Srinivas and the SEC entering one particular hotel room on the 8th floor of a luxury hotel in Hyderabad is raising multiple questions. This comes at a time when a matter pertaining to his removal by the State Government and subsequent resinstation by the HC are being debated upon in the SC, someone holding a constitutional position spending 1.5 hours in a private hotel room with active politicians belonging a particular party with one person standing guard in the lobby to ensure nobody is seeing it is raising multiple question on the integrity of the SEC and is validating the claims of the YSRCP of him being biased in a way according to partymen.
Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar has been at the center of the controversy since he unilaterally decided to postpone the local body polls citing the reason of the outbreak of coronavirus, without even consulting the state health officials.
Upon being confronted by state officials who the SEC claimed were consulted before the decision, the SEC was seen backtracking and saying that he consulted the Union Health officials. These sensational tapes have become the new flashpoint in AP politics with the YSRCP using this as a justification to accuse the SEC of being biased and favouring the TDP.
The big question that Ramesh Kumar needs to answer is, why evade official protocol to meet politicians at a time like this? Why couldn’t the protocol be followed? Is it true that he is known to be maintaining a record of officer belonging to a particular caste ( Kammas) unofficially? Can Constitutional position holders be allowed to mingle with active politicians at a time like this?
