Suraypet: Kodad municipality set to witness three-cornered fight

Kodad (Suraypet): The Kodad municipality is all set for a three-cornered fight between the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, with all taking the elections to the municipality as a prestige issue.

Kodad, which became a gram panchayat in 1952, continued as a gram panchayat till 2012. Later, in the same year, it was upgraded as a municipality and a special officer was appointed to oversee the municipal works.

First election to the Kodad municipality were conducted in 2014 and the Congress hoisted its flag by winning more than half of the wards. Ontipuli Anitha became the first chairperson of the municipality. However, she later shifted her loyalties to TRS in the presence of Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy.

The Kodad municipality which had 30 wards earlier now boasts of 35 wards with the merger of Tammera and Komarabanda areas. At present, the municipality has a population of 75,000 and of them, 53, 898 are eligible to cast their votes. The Kodad municipality this time is reserved for General (Women).

Former chairperson Ontipuli Anitha, Samineni Prameela and former Kodad Sarpanch Erneni Kusuma are in the race for the chairperson post from TRS, whereas Para Jyothi, wife of former Kodad Sarpanch Para Seethaiah, from Congress and Nune Sulochana from BJP are eyeing the plump post. Andhra settlers, Backward Classes and Muslim minorities are set to decide the poll outcome.

Meanwhile, the Kodad municipal elections are taken as a prestigious issue by Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president Uttam Kumar Reddy and his wife N Padmavathi Reddy, who represented the region earlier as MLAs, and sitting MLA Bollam Mallaiah Yadav who won against Padmavathi with just 750 votes majority in the Assembly elections held in December 2018.

Speaking to The Hans India, former chairperson Ontipuli Anitha said that works worth Rs 43 crore were taken up in the municipality from 2014-2019. Central lighting system, road widening, single arm lighting and Mission Bhagirath works are under progress in the municipality.

Brief history of Kodad gram panchayat Kodad became a gram panchayat in 1952. While Marla Pankalaiah worked as the first Sarpanch, Kakumanu Narsimha Reddy worked as first vice-Sarpanch and China Appaiah as the village secretary. It had a population of 4,000. Later, Tammera Venkateshwar Rao worked as Sarpanch from 1956 to 1964, followed by China Appaiah from 1965 to 1971, Garidepally Swamy from 1971-72 and Velishala Anatha Ramaiah from 1972-81. Later, Venepally Chander Rao became the Sarpanch in 1981. Vice-Sarpanch Chitta Battini Subba Ramaiah became the Sarpanch in 1984 after Chander Rao became the MLA of Kodad. Sathya Babu, Erneni Babu, Para Seethaiah and Erneni Kusuma represented the village as Sarpanches. Wadapally Venkateshwarlu, who was vice-Sarpanch for two times, acted as Sarpanch for two times under special circumstances.