ELURU: After a gap of two decades, the Congress hoisted its flag in the West Godavari Zilla Parishad with the election of its functionary Karumuri Venkata Nageswara Rao to the ZP chairman post on Monday. Ande Satyanarayana, who got elected from Attili on the Congress ticket, was unanimously elected vice-chairman.

Late Maganti Ravindranath Chowdary was the last man from Congress to be at the helm of the ZP from 1982 to 86.

Mr. Nageswara Rao, a real estate businessman from Attili who got elected from Dwaraka Tirumala, was tipped for the post unopposed as the opposition Telugu Desam Party with 21 Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency (ZPTC) members in its kitty did not put up its candidate against the Congress nominee. Interestingly, Nukarapu Suryaprakasa Rao, a film producer, and Gubbala Tammaiah, a retired academician, who were in the race for the top post in ZP from the Congress till the last minute, proposed and seconded Mr Venkata Nageswara Rao's candidature. The intra-party group dynamics worked in favour of Mr. Nageswara Rao since he succeeded in mobilising support from district in-charge Minister B. Satyanarayana, a majority of MLAs and Eluru MP Kavuri Sambhasiva Rao from the district.

Take-over

Congress MP from Narsapur Chegondi Harirama Jogaiah, who openly swore not to allow the ZP chairman post to go out of his control and finally lost out in the battle, sat through the election proceedings and greeted Mr. Nageswara Rao soon after his election. Mr. Nageswara Rao will take over the reins of the Zilla Parishad from K. Jayaraj of Telugu Desam Party.

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