The residents of Bailampur village, in Mulugu mandal, who remained in the news for consistently demanding that the officials fulfil their promises before taking up the Kondapochamma reservoir work have returned a Telangana Rashtra Samithi-backed candidate as sarpanch.
Even on December 31, 2018, the workers of the contractor working on the bund of Kondapochamma Reservoir faced resistance from the agitated villagers, including land oustees and other farmers. The villagers were worried as 90% of the bund work was complete and if the contractor left their village the officials would not even look at them forget address their problems.
“Gajwel Revenue Divisional Officer D. Vijayender Reddy interacted with us several times when the reservoir work was at its preliminary stage. But now no official is bothering to speak with us or to address our problems. Many households are yet to get compensation and we do not know when we will get it,” the villagers said during the agitation.
Surprising result
Exactly, after 25 days in the New Year, when elections were held on January 25 for the Bailampur panchayat, which includes two habitations Thanedarpally and Thanedarpally Tanda, the results threw up a surprise. None of their anger was reflected in the elections.
N. Swathi, a candidate supported by the ruling TRS was elected sarpanch. In the past her mother-in-law N. Venkatamma was the sarpanch. Her husband Krishna Reddy had played a key role in convincing the farmers and others in the village to sell their lands and assets in the village to the government for the construction of the reservoir.
“There were three contenders for the post of sarpanch — N. Swathi, B. Vanitha and C.M. Lavanya. While Ms. Swathi, supported by the TRS, got 426 votes, the two others were backed by the Congress and polled 385 votes and 406 votes respectively. People finally voted for Ms. Swathi thereby extending a general consent to the government from the village to do whatever it wishes,” commented Govardhan Redy, a resident of Bailampur. “All the agitations held in the past have gone down the drain. We had lost our right to question the government forever,” he lamented.
Split vote
The residents feel that the Congress supporting two candidates split the vote resulting in TRS-backed candidate winning the post.
Surprisingly, Mamidyala, another village facing submergence in the same project, elected Congress-supported candidate P. Nagarani as sarpanch defeating the TRS-backed candidate.
