Telangana civic elections: New crop of young, educated first-time councillors

HYDERABAD: Sharing the winner’s dais with seasoned politicians, on Thursday, was a host of debutantes - many of them armed with fancy degrees and swank corporate jobs. The average age of the new crop of councillors hovered in the 30 to 40-years bracket, a clear shift from the trend observed in earlier polls.
Among them was B Srividya, a MSc graduate who won from Ward 5 in Kompally municipality on a Congress ticket.She secured 614 votes against her nearest rival TRS candidate, S Sathamma who got 299 votes. “People elected me not based on my education qualification. They need dedication and determination to resolve local issues. That is what I will do,” said the 30-year-old.

Also making it to the finish line, as the new councillor of Nizampet’s Ward 28 was 30-year-old Dhanaraj Yadav who was drawn to politics right from his days as a student. Speaking to TOI post his victory he said, “I wanted to join active politics to be able to serve people for a longer duration...It’s better to begin early if we want to bring about many changes,” the businessman-turned-politician said. Yadav’s aim is to improve basic facilities such as roads and water supply in the Nizampet area.
Better roads is on the agenda of 38-year-old Naveen Alashyam too — the BJP candidate from Manikonda’s Ward 8 who met with success on his maiden run. Alashyam recently quit his IT job (he is serving his notice period) to contest the municipal polls. “The lack of proper water supply is the issue I will be tackling first. Besides this, I will follow-up on road works, especially on Road No 25 and Road No 1, both of which are in a poor condition,” said the software engineer.
Another techie, S Surya Kala, who earlier worked as project assistant director with an MNC took on the role of a neta, on Saturday, by winning the Kompally civic polls from Ward 7 on a BJP ticket. Surya Kala who pursued her MSc in Mathematics worked as an IT professional for three years. “Though I have two kids, I assure my voters that I will resolve major civic issues such as water, drainage and roads on priority basis,” she said.
Similar promises were made by MCA graduate, K Jyotsna Devi (39) who won Ward 11, Kompally municipality and Deepika Reddy (42), an MBA graduate won the civic polls from Ward 20 in Medchal municipality on a TRS ticket. Several candidates emphasised the need for more younger people in politics so that they could better connect with voters and also address issues.
They said that the young lot were politically aware and had the drive to address the issues that were affecting the general public.
Many of them have also decided to connect with members of their wards through social media applications to identify and solve grievances without delay or confusion.