VIJAYAWADA: In an unprecedented move, the State Election Commission has directed the AP Director-General of Police to confine minister for panchayat raj and rural development Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy to his house till the completion of gram panchayat elections on February 21.
The prohibits the minister from having access to the media in order to prevent him from “making inciting utterances” that could adversely impact the poll process and also the law and order situation in Chittoor district.
The SEC took serious note of the minister’s recent warning to collectors and returning officers, urging them to disobey instructions from State Election Commissioner N. Ramesh Kumar and to blacklist them if they followed Kumar’s instructions especially with regard to prevention of forced unanimous elections.
The minister had allegedly said that the SEC would be in power till March 31 while the YSRC government tenure would continue beyond it, and asked the returning…