Kotamreddy’s ‘Gen Z connect’ expected to yield four NMC seats for youth

After recently announcing to establish connect with the Gen Z and holding a series of meetings with college students, Nellore Rural MLA Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy has taken the goal forward by announcing to earmark four divisions in Nellore Municipal Corporation (NMC) to young candidates.

Of the 72 divisions under NMC, 36 fall under Nellore Rural constituency, and as such, Mr. Reddy has a considerable say in choosing the candidates.

With elections to the local bodies round the corner, politicians are busy identifying candidates for their strongholds.

However, taking a cue from New Delhi’s youth mobilisation, Mr. Sridhar Reddy had decided to give an opportunity for the youth to contest the elections.

He held a series of meetings over the last month with students of several colleges to seek their opinion on public administration and also to get inputs on the people’s expectations from the incumbent dispensation.

In his own words, the series of meetings with the youth had given him a new perspective on the youth’s views on politicians and also helped him learn the nuances of providing solutions to decades-old problems by using technology.

Young candidates

Moving forward, he recently announced to allocate four seats in the corporation to candidates in the age group of 21-35 years.

While the general norm in selecting candidates includes caste equations, family background, financial strength, ties with the general public etc, the MLA is keen on identifying those having skill sets like decent educational qualification, command over their corporation divisions, ability to articulate their points with the public.

Though the decision is yet to get the party nod, he is confident of convincing the leadership that this novel approach would further endear the party to the public.