TRS faces tough battle in Bandlaguda Jagir

Bandlaguda Jagir: A newly carved out municipality is now headed for its maiden battle of ballot with five of its wards gearing up for the hustings on January 22. The state government has formed Banlaguda Jagir Municipality by exercising delimitation of erstwhile Bandlaguda Jagir panchayat consisting of five major panchayats such as Bandlaguda Jagir, Hydershah Kote, Peeram Cheruvu, Kismatpur and Himayath Sagar.

Banlaguda Jagir municipality now consists of 22 wards and has 59,088 voters, of whom 30,562 are male and 28,526 females.

Out of the 22 wards, Himayath Sagar, which was named after the historic Himayat Sagar lake due to its close proximity to the water body, has been tagged as Ward No.12 and this post holds significance as it remained a bastion of Congress since independence.

Being the oldest habitation on the bank of lake, the village is at a stone's throw away from the city of Hyderabad. However, despite rapid urbanization, the ward still resembles the traditional rural life as most of the inhabitants are predominantly farmers and still live in houses made up of clay roof tiles that otherwise would not be visible in any other area on the city outskirts. This ward has 2,568 voters. There are 1,286 males voters and 1,282 female electors.

"People here are complaining that no 60 sq.yards pattas are not distributed yet as promised by the TRS government. Moreover, roads and open spaces were dug up in the name of Mission Bhagiratha but not a single drop of water has been supplied yet," said Anjaneyulu, a former sarpanch of the gram panchayat.

He belongs to Congress party and now his brother Muddam Ramu is contesting from the ward. Though the TRS party is trying to win the maiden battle in the newly carved out municipal ward, the mood of the voters indicates it is not going to be any easy.