AP: SEC orders house arrest RD minister for threatening officials

In Andhra Pradesh, tension between the state government and State Election Commissioner(SEC) have increased on Saturday when the SEC ordered house-arrest of state minister for panchayati raj and rural development Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy till February 21. In his direction to state director general of police, the SEC Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar said Ramchandra Reddy should be confined to his residential premises till the completion of elections to the gram panchayats. 

Kumar’s order follows a statement issued by the minister on Friday evening asking all the state government officials not to follow the earlier directions of the SEC to withhold the announcement of results of the unanimously-elected candidates in gram panchayats in Chittoor and Guntur districts till further notice. The SEC also directed that during the period of confinement to his house, the minister would not be given access to media to ensure that “he would not make possible inciteful utterances that will have an adverse impact on the ongoing elections to the local bodies as well as on the general law and order situation in Chittoor and elsewhere.”

The SEC said the minister, however, could get access to medical aid and such other exigencies warranting inevitable movement as deemed reasonable. “He can also discharge his duties as a minister, have access to all official records and papers and can dispose of the matters,” the SEC said. SEC Kumar said the minister’s statement had created fear psychosis among the voters in the local bodies. “It amounts to not only interference with the election process, but also subversion of democratic election process to the local bodies underway,” he said.

Describing Kumar’s orders for his house arrest as atrocious, Ramachandra Reddy said there was no need to follow Kumar’s orders. “He should first understand whether his orders would be implemented at all. It is evident that the SEC was acting under the directions of Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu,” he alleged and asked the officials not to follow the orders of the SEC. The elections to over 13,000 gram panchayats in the state are being held in four phases this month. The first phase of polling will be held on Tuesday.