Major Political Parties Eye Mancherial Corporation Mayor Post

Adilabad: Major political parties like the Congress, BRS and BJP are eyeing the mayor’s post of Mancherial Municipal Corporation, which has been recently upgraded from a municipality and is heading for its first elections.

The Mancherial Corporation comprises 60 divisions covering Mancherial town, Srirampur and CCC Naspur areas. With elections being held for the first time, all three parties view the mayoral contest as politically significant.

Party leaders believe that winning the Mancherial mayor’s post could provide momentum ahead of the next Assembly elections and offer an advantage in the Peddapalli Lok Sabha constituency.

Mancherial Assembly constituency is the largest urban centre in Peddapalli district and falls within the Peddapalli parliamentary constituency. The area also has a substantial number of Singareni workers, particularly in the coal belt regions under the Mancherial Assembly segment.

In the 2023 Assembly elections, Congress candidate Kokkirala Premsagar Rao won the Mancherial seat, while BJP’s Verebelli Raghunath Rao finished second and BRS candidate Diwakar Rao came third.

The BJP secured 39,829 votes in the constituency, which party leaders say indicated a gradual strengthening of its base. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, BJP candidate Srinivas Gomasa polled 3,44,223 votes from the Peddapalli seat, while Gaddam Vamsi was elected as MP. Former BRS MLA Diwakar Rao, who lost the 2023 Assembly election, is making efforts to regain political ground through the mayoral contest.

Congress leaders said Premsagar Rao and his wife are actively campaigning to consolidate the party’s base in the district. Expressing confidence, Premsagar Rao said Congress would win the Mancherial mayor’s post and hoped voters would support the party based on development works undertaken in the Assembly constituency over the last two years.