Jagan calls YSRCP’s support for 2023 election commissioner law a mistake; TDP and BJP question the U-turn

YSR Congress Party president Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has said his party made a “mistake” when it voted for the Union government’s 2023 election commissioner law, which governs how the Chief Election Commissioner and the other Election Commissioners are chosen, and that it now regrets doing so.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, 18 October, the former Chief Minister argued that the people who run elections should not be picked by the party in power. “An examiner cannot be appointed by the student,” he said, calling the present arrangement a flaw in the system that had to be corrected.

Under the 2023 Act, which the YSRCP supported in Parliament, the President appoints election commissioners on the advice of a committee made up of the Prime Minister, a Union Cabinet minister chosen by the Prime Minister, and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Jagan pointed out that this gives the government two votes against the Opposition’s one, while the Chief Justice of India has no place on the panel.

What he is proposing

Jagan called for the selection committee to consist of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the CJI. He also said State Election Commissioners should be chosen by a neutral authority rather than by a Chief Minister or the ruling party, and suggested a state-level panel of the Chief Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Chief Justice of the High Court. Such changes, he said, were needed to restore public trust in elections.

The YSRCP chief has been urging a review of the Act since late September. This is the first time he has described his party’s earlier support as an error.

He used the same press conference to attack the conduct of the ongoing local body elections. He alleged that the State Election Commission was favouring the ruling coalition, that returning officers had refused to accept some YSRCP nominations, and that police in Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s government were acting for the TDP, including during clashes at Pulivendula. The government and the State Election Commission have not responded to these allegations.

TDP and BJP respond

TDP leader N. Vijay Kumar said the YSRCP had backed the law while it held power and was questioning it only after losing the 2024 elections, calling the shift a matter of political convenience. He reminded Jagan that his own government used an ordinance in 2020 to remove the then State Election Commissioner, N. Ramesh Kumar, and later appointed retired Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney, who had been serving as Jagan’s principal adviser, without consulting Naidu, who was then Leader of the Opposition.

BJP leader B. Vinusha Reddy asked whether the new position was driven by political circumstances, and why the YSRCP had voted for the law and voiced regret only now. She also asked why the Congress had not brought in a CJI-inclusive panel during its long years in power, and said Parliament had acted within its authority.

What comes next

The exchange comes in the middle of Andhra Pradesh’s local body elections. Polling for urban local bodies is on 28 October, with counting on 30 October, while elections to MPTCs and ZPTCs are scheduled for 3 November, with results on 5 November. Any change to the national selection panel would require Parliament to amend the 2023 election commissioner law.

Also read: AP local body polls: MPTC, ZPTC voting on November 3; coalition set for walkovers in several towns · Dr Chintalapudi Ashok Kumar: the doctor rebuilding YSRCP’s ground game in Addanki · Cockroach movement founder Abhijeet Dipke freed on conditions after Delhi detention