Why are Andhra Pradesh’s civic poll nominations under the Supreme Court’s scrutiny? | Explained

The Supreme Court has asked the State Election Commission to decide where candidates were unable to file nominations

Updated - October 23, 2026 08:13 am IST

The Supreme Court in New Delhi. The court has asked the Andhra Pradesh State Election Commission to examine the YSRCP’s complaints and decide where civic poll nominations should reopen. File | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP)’s allegation of obstructions during the filing of nominations for elections to urban local bodies (ULBs) has landed the State Election Commission (SEC) in a tight spot, and the process has come under the Supreme Court’s scrutiny. The focus has now shifted from political claims to the SEC’s ability to establish a level playing field.

The question in Andhra Pradesh’s municipal elections is no longer only who will win the civic bodies. It is also whether every eligible candidate gets a fair opportunity to enter the contest. The Supreme Court’s intervention, following a petition by the YSRCP, has come at a critical stage of the electoral process.

By directing the Commission to examine complaints of alleged obstruction, consider extending nomination deadlines wherever it finds candidates were unable to file papers because of the law-and-order situation, and defer publication of the final candidates’ list till October 25, the court has made it clear that adherence to an election calendar cannot, by itself, settle concerns about electoral fairness.

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The court’s directions do not establish the YSRCP’s allegations as true. They do, however, require the authorities to examine whether any candidate was denied the opportunity to contest because of a breakdown in law and order.

What does the YSRCP allege?

The YSRCP approached the Supreme Court after the Andhra Pradesh High Court declined, on October 18, to extend the nomination deadline. The party had first approached the High Court before the nomination process began, seeking preventive measures over its apprehensions of violence. A single judge declined omnibus relief on October 15 but gave individual candidates liberty to approach the election officers concerned for remedial action.

The opposition party alleged that its candidates had been assaulted, threatened, obstructed from reaching nomination centres and, in some instances, deprived of their nomination papers. Before the Supreme Court, the YSRCP’s counsel claimed that nearly two-thirds, or about 63%, of its candidates were prevented from filing nominations, a claim the State strongly contested. The nomination period for the ULB elections ran from October 16 to October 18.

The YSRCP’s petition cited alleged incidents in Punganur, Rayachoti, Kadapa and Tirupati, including the alleged snatching and tearing of a candidate’s nomination papers in Kadapa and the alleged prevention of nine candidates from entering Returning Officers’ offices in Tirupati. It also referred to an alleged attack on the convoy of YSRCP MP P.V. Midhun Reddy.

The political significance is considerable. In local elections, where a candidate’s personal network, caste equations, local influence and access to party machinery can be decisive, preventing a rival from entering the race can be more effective than defeating that rival at the polling booth.

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An uncontested victory may be entirely legitimate when no opponent chooses to contest. It becomes a matter of serious concern if potential opponents were prevented from filing nominations. That distinction is central to the dispute.

The YSRCP’s allegations cannot be treated as proven merely because the Supreme Court entertained its petition. Equally, the complaints cannot be dismissed as political rhetoric without examining the evidence. The test is whether the alleged obstructions can be established through candidate representations, contemporaneous complaints, video recordings, police records and the accounts of election officials. The Supreme Court itself noted that the YSRCP had placed before it representations made physically and electronically, along with video clips purportedly evidencing obstruction.