The Election Commission is said to be in dilemma in initiating action for violation of election code by AP Govt. Advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, though it has been receiving several complaints from the opposition parties.
TDP state president K Achchemnaidu complained on March 24 alleging that being a state government advisor, he is acting like a political leader, daily holding media briefs on behalf of YSRCP. Moreover, it was alleged that he spewed poison on the opposition parties.
However, AP Chief Election Officer M K Meena seems to be not clear on how he can initiate action against him. The main problem for him is that the election rules do not specify any action to be taken if the government advisors cross their limitations.
According to sources, Meena recently wrote a letter to Central Election Commission Chief Secretary Avinash Kumar seeking his suggestion on this issue.
There are 40 advisers in the government, out of which 9 are of cabinet rank, and the remaining 31 are in the P, Q, R categories, and are enjoying the facilities by receiving salaries and allowances from the government.
The EC was requested to clarify the manner in which a decision should be taken on this issue to be applicable to all advisers. As the advisors are receiving salaries from the government treasury and enjoying facilities at government expense, the opposition leaders are arguing that election code is certainly applicable to them.
Therefore, there is a demand that the Election Commission should take cognizance of their activities from the point of election code and they should be made answerable for any violation of the code. It may be wondered that how can ECI ignore their activities for the simple reason their category is not mentioned in their rule book?
Anyhow, the ECI’s possible response to the complaint against Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy is creating enthusiasm in the political circles.
