Khammam: There are 14 Independents in the fray in Khammam Lok Sabha constituency.
But, the presence of Maddineni Anil Kumar stands out. He has filed nominations both in Khammam and Vijayawada Parliament seats in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh respectively. His goal is to fight corruption and he is contesting to expose corruption in public life.
A native of Errupalem, Anil Kumar, practiced as an advocate for some years, and is cultivating his land in his village.
Maddineni Venkatramaiah, Anil Kumar’s grandfather, worked as Errupalem panchayat president twice. His father Hanumantha Rao tried to get the farm income certificate but the revenue officer demanded `30,000 to issue the certificate. He refused to give it and as a result Hanumantha Rao was refused the certificate.
Anil is vocal about it and even fought against corruption. “I was remanded for displaying a poster ‘I will not give kickbacks’ before the mandal revenue officer in Errupalem mandal. I spent three days in jail. The incident took place in 2016,” he said. Since then, he has been fighting against corruption.
He has been practicing as an advocate in Vijayawada. He says that electing Renuka or Nama Nageswara Rao in Khammam or Kesineni Nani or PVP Prasad in Vijayawada would not end corruption.
“And that is why, I decided to contest to expose corruption. IPS and IAS officer are behaving like feudal landlords and not checking corruption at any stage. Further, many of the officers are resorting to corruption,” he said.
Anil Kumar has planned a padayatra from Khammam to Vijayawada to campaign against corruption but is awaiting permission. “Changing governments does not end corruption and neither Chandrababu Naidu nor KCR are making enough efforts to check corruption. “I want to expose the evil by filing nominations in both places,” he said.
His election symbol is the chappal. “It means that the person who asks for kickbacks will be slapped with chappal,” he says.
