SANGAREDDY: In Tallapally village, a young couple found an unlikely route to marriage by turning the panchayat elections into a shield against expected resistance.
Chandrasekhar Goud, a BC youth associated with the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, had been in a relationship with Srija, an SC student in her third year of engineering.
With the sarpanch post reserved for an SC woman, he encouraged Srija to file her nomination on the last day, and the two married soon after the papers were submitted.
Villagers said objections had surfaced within her community, but Srija stayed in the fray. BRS MLA Chinta Prabhakar attended the wedding and publicly backed the couple.
Srija contested against former sarpanch Ankela Yashoda.
She lost the election but avoided the social pushback that couples from different castes often face. While instances of hostility towards SC–BC alliances are still reported in the region, the couple’s decision to align their marriage with the election timetable allowed them to move ahead without interruption.
For Chandrasekhar Goud, the plan did not deliver the sarpanch seat. For them both, it ensured the marriage went ahead without further dispute.