The glory that ended, thanks to reservation

The Yadagirigutta village was constituted as a grama panchayat with a population of 6,000 and was later converted as a major grama panchayat. Its present population is 17,362, of whom 9,653 are voters.

The panchayat raj system was introduced in 1952 and Vemula Lakshmi Narsaiah of the village was elected as the first sarpanch and had been re-elected unanimously continuously for 42 years thereafter. In accordance with the rule of reservation that came into force in 1995, the village sarpanch post was reserved for backward class women (BC women). Therefore, Lakshmi Narsimhaiah has not contested the post since 1995.

When he was sarpanch of the village, Narsimhaiah received a galaxy of dignitaries and top leaders of the country. They included the country’s presidents Rajendra Prasad, Sarvepalli Radhakrishna and Shankar Dhayal Sharma, and  many governors of the state. As sarpanch, he initiated and undertook a number of developmental activities in Yadagirigutta. He submitted several representations to the late prime minister PV Narasimha Rao on schemes for development of the village.  Narsimhaiah set a record as he served the village sarpanch for 42 long years continuously.

After the post of the sarpanch of Yadagirigutta reserved for BC (Women), Kairamkonda Sridevi was elected as the first woman sarpanch in 1995 and has been re-elected continuously ever since for 15 years.

Interestingly, Sridevi was elected as saranch once in the capacity of BC (Women), second time in the BC (General) category and for the third time again as BC (General). 

Now, for the forthcoming elections, the Yadagirigutta sarpanch post has been reserved for SC (General) candidates and neither Lakshmi Narsaiah nor K.Sridevi can contest the post now.