Maheshwaram constituency gets its name from the ancient Shiva temple in the village that has a Pushkarani (stepped well). Far away from the temple, at the end of the village sits Bharatamma with her neighbours on a raised platform near the doorway of her house. “We are going to the meeting,” she says laughing as other women rush out of their homes so as not to miss the event. “We get water at home. We have a roof over our head. We don’t expect much from any politician; it (voting) is a duty we will perform,” she says. “If KCR’s party loses will the other party take this road and run? Will they eat up the road? No. What we have, nobody can take away,” she says looking at the RCC road liberally covered with cowdung spray splashed in the morning.
Every second house has a car or a two-wheeler in the village that lived by agriculture for generations. Now, HMDA survey numbers, phone numbers, realty traders are ubiquitous signs of progress for the village.
“The Bharatiya Janata Party is organising a meeting. We have a road show with Sabithamma,” says a Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader as he gestures to the women who spill out of homes and walk towards the open space behind the temple for a roadshow. In 2018, Sabitha Indra Reddy won the seat on an Indian National Congress ticket and then switched sides to become the Education minister. The noisy challengers are Sriramulu Yadav of BJP and K. Laxma Reddy of Indian National Congress.
