Kadapa all set to elect its first woman Mayor

Kadapa is all set to elect its first woman Mayor, with both the NDA alliance and the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) fielding woman candidates for the upcoming election.

One of the oldest civic bodies in the State, Kadapa municipality was formed in 1868 and was upgraded to a municipal corporation in 2004.

Kadapa Assembly constituency elected its first woman MLA in 2024, when TDP’s Reddeppagari Madhavi Reddy defeated the then Deputy Chief Minister S.B. Amzath Basha. However, no woman has ever occupied the Mayor’s seat here in the last two decades.

For the Mayoral post, TDP’s N. Suvarna is pitted against the YSRCP’s Bandi Deepthi.

With 63 out of the 66 corporators already elected unanimously by the ruling alliance, the fight to gain control over the urban local body has turned nominal, however, the Mayoral aspirants have decided to take this no-holds-barred fight to its logical end. The actual tussle has been reduced to just two divisions, as the third division will witness a friendly fight between the Jana Sena Party (JSP) and BJP candidates.

As the deadline for the withdrawal of nominations ended on Wednesday evening, neither side appeared in a tense or jovial mood after the fight for the corporator seats turned one-sided, shifting the focus entirely to the Mayor’s seat.

Meanwhile, civic issues take the centre stage in this year’s elections.

Ms. Madhavi Reddy, speaking to the media, expressed hope that they would win the mayor’s seat with ease. “Even if elected, the opponent candidate will have no support in the house, as a majority of seats have already been won by us unanimously,“ she said.

She denied the occurrence of any violence during the nomination phase and flayed the ruckus created by the YSRCP as ‘meaningless’, as the candidates had voluntarily withdrawn from the fray fearing ‘imminent defeat’. She also offered support to party candidate Suvarna by claiming that she had enough clarity over civic issues.