An exclusive Panchayat of women

• Tea stall owner's wife becomes sarpanch
• All ward members elected unanimously

Tirupati: The people of Nendragunta Panchayath of Chittoor district have created history by electing only women as Sarpanch and ward members unanimously. It is for the first time that women contestants were exclusively and unanimously elected to the posts of sarpanchs and ward members. This was made possible by introducing the reservation system for women in the gram panchayats.

The Nendragunta Panchayath was reserved for BC-women and Fathima Bee, wife of a tea stall owner was elected as sarpanch unanimously. She not only received support of the local people in filing the nomination papers, but they also decided not to contest the election, thus, paving the way for her unanimous election.

Even for the posts of ward members, three women and three men filed nominations, but the local people persuaded the men to withdraw in favour of the women members. Thus, women were elected unanimously as ward members. Speaking to 'The Hans India', Fathima Bee said that she never thought of contesting the elections, but the reservation system and cooperation from all people of this constituency made her the sarpanch.

Her husband, Mehamood Basha said that his family was running a tea-stall and assured the people that he would not interfere in his wife's activities. Fathima said that she would strive for the all-round development of her village. After the completion of withdrawal of nominations on July 17, the ward members will elect the deputy sarpanch of the panchayat.Perhaps, this may also be unanimous since the five ward members have decided to elect Kannamma as deputy sarpanch. Then, deputy sarpanch will be Kannamma and ward members Aruna, Jeevarthanmma, Mamatha, Vijaya and Jayamma.