Four women MLAs in undivided Anantapur dist

Anantapur-Puttaparthi : Four women - Paritala Sunitha of Raptadu constituency, Bandaru Sravani of Singanamala, Palle Sindhura of Puttaparthi and Savitha of Penukonda Assembly segment - were among the 14 TDP MLAs, who were elected in the undivided district.

Three of them, Bandaru Sravani, Palle Sindhura and Savitha, are first time MLAs. Bandaru Sravani, although elected for the first time, had unsuccessfully contested as MLA twice in 2014 and 2019. Her determined efforts and patience paid off, resulting in her victory in third attempt.

Savitha and Sindhura are novices and are contesting for the first time. Sindhura has the powerful backing of her father-in-law and former Minister Palle Raghunath Reddy. He was a five-time MLA and very familiar to the constituency voters and he actively campaigned for his daughter-in-law. Sindhura being new to politics also served as an advantage, having started on a clean slate in politics.

Paritala Sunitha is of course ‘an old horse’. She became an MLA first in 2009 after her husband Paritala Ravindra's assassination in 2005 and she was also elected as MLA in 2014. She unsuccessfully contested in 2019 and lost to YSRCP. She now bounced back as MLA once again in 2024. She served as a Minister during 2014-19 in N Chandrababu Naidu’s cabinet. Penukonda MLA Savitha can be described as a giant killer, because being a novice she has defeated ex-Minister Usha Sri Charan in YS Jagan Mohan Reddy cabinet. Even Palle Sindhura too can be termed as giant killer, who defeated senior YSRCP leader and sitting MLA D Sridhar.

Sindhura and Sravani are young while Sunitha and Savitha are in their 50's. The luckiest of all the four is Sindhura, who straight away became an MLA without much struggle, thanks to her father-in-law Palle Raghunath Reddy.