Know Your MLA: Holding daily meetings with people, solving their problems

Adilabad: Payal Shankar’s continuous efforts for the development of his constituency, determination, being amidst the people and dedicating himself for their welfare endear him to the masses in Adilabad.

Locals in the constituency say that ‘Shankar Anna’ is accessible to people every day, irrespective of whether elections are around the corner or not. It is routine for Shankar to hold meetings with people every day early in the morning, listen their problems and talk to officials and try to solve their issues.

Shankar hails from Ade village of Jainath mandal of Adilabad district. He initiated his political journey with the Telugu Desam Party. In the 2011 by-elections, he contested as a representative of the TDP but was defeated. Subsequently he transitioned to BJP.

In 2014, 2018 assembly general elections he suffered consecutive defeats by Jogu Ramanna. However, he bounced back and in 2023 general elections, he defeated Jogu Ramanna with a margin of over 6,692 votes and for the first time became a member of the legislative assembly.

On the development front, he is trying to re-open the closed Cement Corporation of India to provide employment to youth, apart from working to establish a railway line from Adilabad to Nizamabad and an aerodrome for Adilabad, among other pending issues.