Andhra Pradesh State Election Commissioner's 'secret meeting' raises eyebrows

Controversial Andhra Pradesh State Election Commissioner (SEC) Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar has come under fire once again. CCTV footage has emerged where he is seen entering a star hotel in Hyderabad and is holding a discussion for over an hour with former TDP Union minister and Rajya Sabha MP Sujana Chowdary and former AP health minister in the TDP regime and current BJP leader Kamineni Srinivas.

The meeting assumes significance and has raised a lot of eyebrows especially when a case related to the appointment of Ramesh as the SEC is sub-judice in the Supreme Court.

The CCTV footage reveals that Ramesh met the two leaders at Park Hyatt in Hyderabad on June 13.
Sujana Chowdary was the first to enter the luxury hotel at 10:47 am. After sometime, Kamineni Srinivas can be seeing stepping inside at 11:23 am. Shortly afterwards, Nimmagada Ramesh can be seen at the hotel lobby at 11:44 am.

All three of them take separate lifts to reach the eighth floor of the hotel. One unidentified person in common, receives all of them and escorts them to a room. The meeting goes on for over an hour and all of them emerge out of the room post 1:13 pm.

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What's the tiff between AP govt & Ramesh?

Ramesh had a lot of run-ins with the Jagan Mohan Reddy govt earlier this year when he cancelled Panchayati Raj polls in March citing the spread of coronavirus. Jagan then attributed political affiliations to the SEC, saying Ramesh belonged to the oppositionTelugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu's caste and was appointed by him.

After ousting Ramesh Kumar as SEC, the state government appointed a retired Tamil Nadu judge Justice Kanagaraju as the new SEC. The Andhra Pradesh High Court reversed the government's decision in May 29.

When the state appealed against this order in the Supreme Court. On June 10, the apex court refused to stay the high court's orders. The Court is scheduled to take up hearing on the case soon.

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