Panchayat Elections Trivia: Vizag Village Volunteers Who Became Sarpanches

Results for the sarpanch posts were declared after the first phase of gram panchayat elections were held on February 9th in the State of Andhra Pradesh. The YSRCP-backed candidates have bagged more than 81 per cent seats in the first phase of panchayat elections.

Click Here to see the complete list of Sarpanches who won in the First Phase of  AP Panchayat  Elections

Results of the winners are pouring in and in one such interesting story three Village Volunteers won the hearts of their respective villagers where they were working. The Village Volunteers who were recruited to bring the government welfare schemes closer to the people eventually took the reins of governance of those villages where they worked. Appreciating their efforts, the people of the respective villages voted for them and elected them as sarpanches in Visakhapatnam district.

Ayanampudi Vijaya Bhaskara Raju of Melipaka village in Munagapaka mandal, Melipaka Padmarekha of Mangalapuram panchayat in Butchayyapeta mandal and

Karaka Rajyalakshmi of Jamadulapalem in Kasimkota mandal contested for the sarpanch position as per the wishes of the villagers and won- a victory they say was made possible by the popularity of volunteers.

Another village volunteer named Kanuru Ramadevi of Gorripudi village in Karapa mandal, East Godavari district won the panchayat elections. With the encouragement of YSRCP  village committee president Chikala Subbarao, Ramadevi resigned  from her post as a volunteer and filed nomination papers for the village sarpanch in the panchayat elections.

In triangular contest in the village, she won with a majority of 508 votes, where she secured 2,002 votes and her nearest rival the TDP secured 1,494 votes and Jana Sena Party joint candidate polled 613 votes, out of the total of 4,229 votes polled. She promised to work for the development of the village with the support of the Agriculture Minister Kurasala Kannababu and the village elders.