Kathera Henry Christina, the Zilla Parishad Chairperson-elect from Guntur district, will be the second Dalit woman to occupy the coveted post. She will be sworn in on Saturday in the presence of Ministers, MLAs and officials.
Ms. Christina is the wife of Suresh Kumar, who runs an NGO in Tenali, and is presently District Cooperative Marketing Society chairperson.
Ms. Christina had contested from Tadikonda (SC) Assembly constituency in 2014 and had lost to Tenali Sravan Kumar from the Telugu Desam Party, but had won the hearts of partymen with her commitment and hard work.
In the elections held in 2021, Ms. Christina won from Kollipara ZPTC with a majority of over 17,000 votes. It was a coincidence that the last Dalit ZPTC chief, K. Vijayamma, had represented Kollipara ZPTC during the Congress government.
“We are forever grateful to Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who had fulfilled his promise of elevating a Dalit woman to the coveted post. We assure that we will live up our leader’s expectation and ensure that welfare schemes are taken to the doorstep of the people,’’ said Ms. Christina.
It was a bit of testing time for Ms. Christina as she had to wait for the ZPTC elections which were postponed due to COVID-19 and later were caught up in courts. She had a tough task ahead as the ZP had been without a head for the last two years after the change of guard at the State.
Ms. Christina completed graduation at Khammam and underwent teacher training course at Hyderabad.
