Women’s empowerment got a boost in the Fort City with the three key posts of the Mayor and two Deputy Mayors all going to women members of the Vizianagaram Municipal Corporation.
Although many names were discussed for the Mayor’s post, it was finally given to 11th ward member Vempadapu Vijayalakshmi. Ms. Vijayalakshmi (48) has studied till Class X and belongs to the Turpu Kapu community.
The first deputy mayor, Muchhu Nagalakshmi, is 47, and has studied till Intermediate and belongs to the Yadava community. The second deputy mayor, Kolagatla Sravani, is 28, and is pursuing a career in chartered accountancy. Ms. Sravani, elected from the 29th ward, is from the Arya Vysya community and is the daughter of Vizianagaram MLA Kolagatla Veerabhadra Swamy.
Senior corporator S.V.V. Rajeswara Rao was given the post of standing committee chairperson. He has been a loyalist of Mr. Veerabhadra Swamy since 1983, according to YSRCP leaders. All of them were unanimously elected to their respective posts in the meeting held in the VMC office in the presence of the Collector and Special Officer of the Corporation M. Hari Jawaharlal.
VMC Commissioner S.S. Varma greeted the Mayor, Deputy Mayors and all the corporators while seeking their cooperation for the speedy development of the city. Out of 50 divisions, YSRCP won 48, while one seat was won by the TDP and the other by an independent candidate.
Mr. Veerabhadra Swamy reportedly insisted on making A. Sujatha as Mayor. She is the wife of YSRCP Vizianagaram town president A. Venu who has also been his loyalist for years. However, the party high command opted for Ms. Vijayalakshmi as she belonged to the Turpu Kapu community, which is a sizeable votebank with over 25,000 votes in Vizianagaram Assembly constituency.
