SANGAREDDY: Bitten by the election bug, citizens aspiring for sarpanch posts in villages across the Sangareddy district are taking some strange decisions, including quitting their well-paid jobs to try their luck at the hustings.
The latest to join this unusual and yet interesting list of aspirants is a young girl from a Scheduled Caste (SC) community.
Sreeja, a third-year B.Tech student, on Saturday submitted her papers to the returning officer on the last day of filing nominations in Thallapalli, which goes to the polls in the first of the three-phase gram panchayat elections on December 11. She reportedly filed her nomination papers in Thallapalli, where the sarpanch post is reserved for a SC woman, at the behest of her lover Chandrasekhar Goud, a BC.
Interestingly, right after filing her papers, the duo went to a nearby temple and got married.
Locals believe that Sreeja entered the fray at the behest of her lover who, backed by some BRS leaders, wanted to prevent the unanimous election of the Congress-backed candidate.
Former village sarpanch A Praveen, a close aide of TPCC working president T Jayaprakash Reddy, wanted to see his mother elected unanimously this time.
Following a complaint lodged by Sreeja’s family members, Goud and Sreeja went to the Sangareddy Rural police station on Sunday morning and sought police protection.
Meanwhile, Sangareddy BRS MLA Chinta Prabhakar too rushed to the police station and extended his support to the newly wed couple.