AP High Court Cancels MPTC ZPTC 2021 Elections, Govt To Appeal In Supreme Court

VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday cancelled the Parishad elections (MPTC ZPTC polls 2021), which were held on April 8.
A single bench of the High Court also directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to issue fresh notification and conduct the elections again after the COVID cases subside.
It may be recollected that the SEC had issued a notification on April 1 for the Parishad elections for the Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (MPTC) and Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTC) to be resumed after they were postponed on March 15, 2020, due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the elections for panchayats and urban local bodies were completed in March, the parishad elections had to wait.
The SEC resumed the MPTC, ZPTC elections and successfully conducted them on April 8 after several litigations in the High Court with due adherence to the COVID protocol.

Also Read: ZPTC, MPTC Elections Get Green Signal From AP High Court

However, the opposition parties including the TDP, Jana Sena Party and BJP filed cases and demanded that these elections be cancelled be held with fresh notification.
The court, after several hearings, finally cancelled the elections and directed the SEC to conduct the elections afresh. The High Court favoured the opposition's contention that the elections were held instead of following the Model Code of Conduct as per the directions of the Supreme Court.
It has ruled in favour of cancelling the MPTC and ZPTC elections held on April 8 in AP.

Sources say that the state government and the State Election Commission have decided to go in for appeal either to a division bench or directly to the Supreme Court against the high court directions.

Also Read: MPTC ZPTC Elections 2021: Allow Counting of Votes And Declare Results, AP SEC To High Court