The Election Commission has directed Andhra Pradesh Chief Election Officer to transfer nine IAS and IPS officers of various ranks, as part of a pre-election reshuffle. In its directions, the EC asked the CEO to post these officials in positions that are free from any electioneering tasks.

The eight officials set to be transferred include three district collectors and five superintendents of police beside the inspector general of the Guntur range. Two of these three district collectors and three of the five SPs belong to the Scheduled Castes.

The officials who will be shunted out of their current positions are Joshua (Chittoor SP), Ravi Shankar Reddy (Palnadu SP), Parameswar (Prakasam SP), Tirumaleswar (Nellore SP), Anburajan (Anantapur SP), Paul Raju (IG, Guntur Range), Rajababu (Krishna DC), Gauthami (Anantapur DC) and Lakshmi Shah (Tirupati DC).

Fingers of suspicion point to TDP over transfers

The latest decision of the Election Commission has instantly sparked suspicions that it bore the signature imprints of the TDP’s influence. TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu is notorious for this type of tactics before every election, especially when he is in opposition. He would often raise false alarms targeting a few district collectors and superintendents of police and accusing them of working to favour the party in power. His accusations classically stem from his own doings when he is in power, keeping the official machinery firmly in his clutches and forcing them to create advantage to the TDP.

The transfer order against the eight IAS and IPS officers is being seen as a fallout of Chandrababu Naidu’s nefarious plot to vitiate the smooth functioning of the official machinery in districts and thereby look to derive some advantage in elections. As part of this conspiracy, a spate of complaints was systematically lodged with the Election Commission by the TDP leaders against the above-mentioned officials. The common refrain in all these complaints was that the officials in these districts may act in prejudice to favour the ruling YSRCP. Interestingly, the TDP has targeted the officials in districts where it had some perceived strength but began losing it fast since the election fever caught up. It is believed that the opposition party, whose graph is already nose-diving by each passing day, is fearful of a second successive and massive defeat staring in its face. Hence, its reliance on devious methods to cast aspersions on the administration and the ruling YSRCP with the help of baseless accusations.