TRS wins Chairman, Vice Chairperson posts of Nereducharla Municipality

The TRS has won the Chairman and Vice Chairperson’s posts in Nereducharla Municipality on Tuesday. TRS councilor Chanda Jaya Babu was elected as chairperson and Challa Saritha (TRS) as vice chairperson.

TRS and Congress won seven wards each in the 15-ward Nereducharla Municipality, with one ward won by CPI (M). TPCC President and Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Congress Rajya Sabha member K V P Ramachander Rao, Rajya Sabha member (TRS) Badugula Lingaiah Yadav, TRS MLCs Sheri Subash Reddy and Bodikanti Venkateshwarlu, and TRS MLA from Huzurnagar Shanampudi Saidi Reddy registered their names as ex-officio members of Nereducharla municipality. With four ex-officio members, the odds were in favour of TRS with 11 votes which was enough to sail through the elections.

The TRS successfully foiled the plan of TPCC president to win the elections in the municipality through the ex-officio vote of Ramachander Rao, who was shifted to Andhra Pradesh after bifurcation, and this led to unnecessary political drama. The issue apparently led to the transfer of District Collector D Amoy Kumar and in-charge Commissioner of Nereducharla municipality.

Reacting to the complaint lodged by Uttam Kumar Reddy for not including Ramachander Rao as ex-officio member, the State Election Commission had on Monday



postponed the elections of chairman and vice chairman of the municipality to Tuesday. In a counter, TRS registered party MLC Sheri Subash Reddy as ex-officio member to get the majority in the election for the two top posts in municipality.

Tense moments were witnessed in the council meeting hall during the election as Congress members including Uttam Kumar Reddy walked out the council meeting and staged a dharna. The officials, however, took up the election of chairman with the required quorum.

Uttam Kumar Reddy and Ramachander Rao, speaking to the media outside Nereducharla Municipal office, alleged that the SEC was working at the behest of the ruling party. “What is use of opposition parties contesting elections, if election commission itself is partial?” he asked.

Meanwhile, police arrested the Congress leaders including Uttam Kumar Reddy while they were staging the dharna and whisked them away in a police van. The police also imposed Section 144 in Nereducharla to avoid any untoward incident in the town due to the prevailing political situation. Superintendent of Police Bhaskaran was personally supervising the security arrangements at Nereducharla Municipal office. About 1,000 police personnel were deployed in Nereducharla.