Vizianagaram: Former TDP MLA, Senior Leader Sobha Hymvathi Resigns

VIZIANAGARAM: In a recent political development in the district, a key leader and former Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MLA Sobha Hymavathi resigned from the party on Saturday. Sobha a former MLA from the Srungavarapukota constituency, also served as the president of the TDP Women’s wing. She is said to have sent her resignation letter to the party's national president N Chandrababu Naidu. With this resignation, the TDP  has lost a strong leader in the Sringavarapu constituency, the Visakhapatnam parliamentary constituency, and its stronghold in the region.

Hailing from Bhimavaram village in the Ananthagiri mandal of the Visakhapatnam district, Sobha’s husband Appalaraju retired from the Hindustan Shipyard. She has three children. Her two sons have completed engineering, while her daughter Sobha Swati Rani completed a Bachelor of Dental Surgery and had served as the President of the Zilla Parishad from 2014 to 2019. Swati Rani who was also with the TDP earlier joined YSR Congress Party (YSRCP)  in the presence of Rajya Sabha member V Vijayasai Reddy in Visakhapatnam last year.

The late TDP leader Lagudu Simhadri who was once a key figure in the district was her political mentor and brought her into politics while she was working at the Andhra University. In the 1999 general elections, Hymavati contested for the first time as a TDP candidate from Srungavarapu Kota, ST Reserve Constituency and defeated the Congress candidate Setty Gangadhara Swamy and won by a majority of 678 votes.  When the  TDP lost the 2004 general elections across the state to the late Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, Hymavati lost to Congress candidate Kumba Ravi Babu by a margin of 5,862 votes. She later served as Director of APEPDCL  for two years from 2018, while holding key responsibilities in the TDP. She has served as the party's state women president and state executive secretary.

She served as the TDP  in-charge for Anakapalli, Visakhapatnam, and Kakinada parliamentary constituencies. In the 2009 elections, she was the TDP in charge of Araku and S. Kota constituencies.  The leader had also fought over the Jindal land issue where she even went to jail. A soft-spoken person, Hymavathi rose to become a key leader in the party. With the reorganization of the constituencies in 2009, S.Kota became a general segment and the Uttarapally constituency was alienated. After this Chandrababu allotted the S. Kota constituency to the 'Kolla' family. Slowly she was sidelined from the TDP activities and neglected by the high command and her prominence in the party gradually diminished. Unable to bear the attitude of the TDP she finally bid goodbye to the party. She is likely to address the media on Sunday to announce her future course of action.

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