Jagan Mohan Reddy unmoved by Covid-19, fires TDP appointee SEC Ramesh Kumar

In Andhra Pradesh, Covid-19 has failed to stop Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy in his tracks. He issued an ordinance firing State Election Commissioner (SEC) Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar, replacing him with retired Madras High Court judge Justice V Kanagaraj, last week. Kumar was appointed by the previous Telugu Desam Party (TDP) regime. He is a former IAS officer.

Reddy was not content with this. Through the ordinance, he truncated the term of the SEC from the existing five years to three years. Kumar, who holds a constitutional post, seems to have earned the CM’s wrath (if a reason was needed: it is enough that he was a Chandrababu Naidu appointee) because of his decision to postpone municipal and panchayat polls, due on March 15, because of the raging Covid-19 epidemic. The SEC announced the election schedule on March 7 and polling was to be held on March 23.

Pouring cold water

A prisoner who was hoping Covid-19 would come to his rescue was Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad Yadav, currently lodged in a prison in Jharkhand after he was convicted in the fodder scam. As prisons across the country were releasing inmates following the directive of the Supreme Court, expectations were riding high that Yadav would also be allowed to leave. Unfortunately prison authorities have poured cold water over all those plans. Officials have decided that those convicted of economic offences and those who have been sentenced to seven or more years will not be allowed to go home.