Gaddam Ananya wins Vikarabad, sets record as youngest chairperson
HYDERABAD: A 24 year old from Vikarabad has become the youngest municipal chairperson in Telangana. Gaddam Ananya, elected from ward 17 of Vikarabad municipality, was chosen as chairperson in the indirect elections on Monday.
Ananya is the daughter of Telangana Assembly Speaker G Prasad Kumar. In the recent municipal elections, she secured 1,138 votes, while her opponents from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) did not cross the three-digit mark.
“I wanted to carve my own identity. This is a step in that direction,” Ananya, who completed her Bachelor of Arts from Loyola Academy, told TOI.
Balancing public role and family responsibilities
Ananya said that, as a woman from the Scheduled Caste (SC) community, she wanted to begin her political career at the grassroots level and step out of her father’s shadow.
A candidate from the Congress party, she said she would juggle between Hyderabad and Vikarabad to discharge her responsibilities both as an elected representative and as a daughter.
“Right now, I don’t know whether I will travel between Hyderabad and Vikarabad every day or move to Vikarabad to be closer to the people. But one thing is certain: I will fulfil my responsibilities as both an elected representative and a daughter, and be available to my people as well as my father,” she said.
Responds to criticism over civic facilities
When asked about the lack of basic facilities in several parts of the municipality, given that her father is the MLA, she said it would take time to address long-pending issues.
“It’s been only two years, and it takes time to address problems that have been pending for the last 10 years. The Congress government is addressing one issue after another. Even in our area, many people were recently sanctioned Indiramma Illu and received free gas,” she added.
