ONGOLE: Ever since it became a municipality in 1876, Ongole has never been headed by a woman. But now, 144 years later, that’s set to change as the post of Mayor has been reserved for a woman belonging to a Scheduled Caste (SC), based on the population and voter ratio.
Ongole district was formed in 1970, and in 2012, it was upgraded to the Ongole Municipal Corporation (OMC). Bapatla Hanumantha Rao, who was elected in 2005, served as the last chairman of the Ongole Municipality, and no elections were held after his tenure.
In January, 2012, when it was made a municipal corporation with 50 divisions from 36 wards, the then government proposed to merge 12 village panchayats with the OMC. But three villages opposed this and filed a suit in court. That case proved to be a hurdle to conducting the next election, and recently, the case was cleared as the government notified only eight surrounding villages and two hamlet villages, and omitted the three that opposed the merger.
With the polls to be held on March 23 and nominations to be received from March 11, political parties are in the process of finalising their candidates.
Meanwhile, district election officer and Collector P Bhaskar announced the particulars for reservation in the OMC division. SC women have got four divisions, ST General one, SC General five, BC Women seven, BC General eight, General/Unreserved Women 14, and the remaining 11 divisions are for the Unreserved category.