VIJAYAWADA: Nearly 3.6 lakh first-time voters are missing their chance of exercising their franchise in the ensuing gram panchayat polls in Andhra Pradesh, state election commissioner (SEC) N. Ramesh Kumar has said.
Addressing a press conference while releasing the gram panchayat poll schedule here on Saturday, he maintained that though the State Election Commission wanted to adopt electoral rolls published on January 15, 2021, it was forced to hold elections as per the rolls published on January 1, 2019. This happened because the panchayat raj department failed to update its rolls with those who have completed 18 years of age, despite the SEC asking the department to do so.
The SEC maintained that though the state government had requested the State Election Commission to defer local body polls in wake of the case coming up for hearing before Supreme Court on Monday, he is going ahead with the polls as contestants and people are having high expectations on holding of the…