Hyderabad: The Telangana and AP state election commissions have been working for quite some time without commissioners. After bifurcation, the Telangana SEC was constituted in September last with principal secretary, finance, V. Nagi Reddy at the head. But he is still continuing with the government. In AP, state election commissioner P. Ramakanth Reddy demitted office on December 31 last and the post is vacant since.
Both the SECs, whose primary responsibility is to conduct elections to panchayati raj and municipal bodies and bypolls to vacant seats, are now being manned by secretaries who cannot exercise statutory powers which are vested only with election commissioners. Elections to the GHMC, Warangal and Khammam municipal corporations are due, besides bypolls to fill up vacant seats in mandal and zilla parishads and municipal councillors in Telangana.
The issue of GHMC elections is in the High Court, which directed the government and the Election Commission to file an affidavit giving details of election schedule. But, without the State Election Commissioner, it is not possible for the commission to arrive at a decision, sources said.
It is also the responsibility of the State Election Commissioner to remind the government about the delimitation of wards and divisions and the exact percentage of reservations to various social groups. Similar is the situation with in AP. The Kurnool, Tirupati Municipal Corporation elections are due, not to mention bypolls to fill up vacancies in local bodies. “Elections cannot be ordered without the commissioner’s directive,” said the source.
