Ahead of upcoming sarpanch (village head) elections, over 500 nominations were filed across around 90 gram panchayats (GPs) in Mancherial district — reflecting high local political activity.
However, there are serious concerns: some villages like Gudem in Dandepalli mandal haven’t elected a sarpanch in decades because their seats are “reserved” for Scheduled Tribes (ST) — even though the village reportedly has no tribal population.
Similar issues exist in other gram panchayats — reservation rules have prevented actual elections, leaving gaps in local governance and representation.