Shobha Hymavathi Mahila Chief

Shobha Hymavathi Mahila Chief

Chandrababu Naidu has appointed former Sringavarapu Kota MLA Shobha Hymavathi as the president of Telugu Mahila, the women’s wing of the party. The post has been lying vacant for quite some time, ever since actress-turned-politician Roja resigned and her successor Seetha Dayakar Reddy refused to accept the post.

Shobha Hymavathi, who was an MLA between 1999 and 2004, was a star attraction in the Assembly during her days, as she was the most beautiful face in the House. Though she was already married then, the young MLAs used to compete with one another to make friends to her. In fact, there was a talk that Shobha’s constituency must have been “Srungarapu Kota” rather than “Shrungavarapu Kota” in Vizianagaram district.

Interestingly, there was also a controversy about her birth. Though she claimed to be from Bagatha Scheduled Tribe and hence was fielded from an ST reserved constituency, she was actually an illegimate child of an upper caste man Murari Rao and Bagatha tribal woman. They were not actually married, but were in live-in relationship. However, after Shobha was born, Murari left his girlfriend and married another upper caste woman.

Shobha was brought up by her mother under tribal customs and she married another Bagatha man. And when she entered politics and contested from ST reserved constituency, her rivals challenged the legitimacy of the election since Shobha’s father belonged to a forward caste. In the High Court, Shobha argued that her tribal community practices matriarchal customs where mother dominates; hence, she belongs to her mother’s caste and not that of father.

However, her rivals argued that children born out of wedlock could not be allowed to disassociate themselves from their biological father’s identity. With the Andhra Pradesh High Court ruling against her, the matter was taken to the Supreme Court, which also ruled that children born out of an illegitimate relationship between a high-caste man and a woman from a scheduled caste or tribe would acquire the categorisation of the father. But by the time, the Supreme Court gave the order, Shobha’s term as an MLA came to an end.

Source:Greatandhra

Posted by sathish on Nov 17 2010. Filed under Breaking News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry