NALGONDA: Chityal municipality in Nalgonda district witnessed a moment on Friday that will be remembered well beyond the counting halls. For the first time in the state, a transgender person was declared elected to the municipal council through a direct poll.
N Sudhakar Kaveri, popularly known as Kaveri, contested as an Independent from Ward No. 1 and won after a close contest. From the day she filed her nomination, Kaveri ran a campaign that stood apart. Moving through the narrow lanes of the ward, she spoke directly to residents about everyday issues, relying more on personal contact than party backing.
Women, in particular, turned up in large numbers during her campaign and on polling day, lending support. When the votes were counted, Kaveri secured 429 votes and her nearest rival, from the CPM and backed by the Congress, polled 327 votes.
Cong candidate who cleared Rs 7.51 cr tax dues to contest suffers defeat
A Congress candidate, who cleared long-pending municipal tax dues of over Rs 7.50 crore to contest in the February 11 civic elections, suffered defeat at the hands of her BJP rival.
The Congress leadership had picked Shamatha Reddy, wife of businessman Katipally Narendar Reddy, to contest in the 19th division of the Nizamabad Municipal Corporation (NMC). When the corporation refused to issue Shamatha a ‘No Dues Certificate’ for filing her nomination papers, citing Rs 7.5 crore bills pending for over 17 years, the husband-wife duo cleared the dues within 17 hours.
After his wife filed her papers, Narender Reddy had said that “we hope to get a refund and will raise the issue during the campaign”. However, Shamatha, who aspired to the Nizamabad mayor post, was defeated by Nagolla Laxminarayana, a close associate of BJP MLA Dhanpal Suryanarayana Gupta. It may be mentioned here that it was Nizamabad MP Dharmapuri Arvind who highlighted this issue during campaigning, urging the voters to defeat Shamatha as “such candidates will not do anything for the people”.