For over four decades, the democratic process has come to a complete halt in Gudem, a village in Telangana's Mancherial district. The community has not participated in a single gram panchayat election since 1983, staging a prolonged boycott against government-mandated reservations for Scheduled Tribes (STs) for posts they claim were unjustly designated.
A Four-Decade-Long Democratic Boycott
The last time Gudem's residents cast their vote for a local sarpanch was in 1983. Bera Bapu, 51, vividly remembers participating in that election but confirms no panchayat polls have been held since. The root of the protest lies in the state's decision to reserve the village's local body seats for the ST category. Villagers assert that there has never been an ST family residing in Gudem, a claim they say is supported by official records.
Despite numerous appeals and representations to authorities, their demand to revert the seats to the general category has fallen on deaf ears. Thota Lakshmaiah, 70, who served as the upa-sarpanch in 1987 when the seat was still unreserved, lamented the official apathy. "We protested, gave representations, but officials show no interest in converting these seats back to general," he told sources. The villagers' frustration even led them to boycott a Lok Sabha election once, hoping to amplify their voice, but the gesture failed to yield any resolution.
The Heavy Price of Protest: Stagnation and Loss
The boycott, while a powerful statement, has extracted a severe developmental cost from Gudem. Located a mere 500 metres from the Godavari River and surrounded by three major temples, the village paradoxically suffers from acute water scarcity and poor infrastructure. "The Godavari is flowing right next to the village but we can't get a drop of water. No one listens to us because we don't have a sarpanch to take up our issues," explained Lakshmaiah.
The absence of an elected local body has crippled the village's growth and devastated its land economy. Land prices have plummeted dramatically. While neighbouring villages command between Rs 40 to 50 lakh per acre, lands in Gudem struggle to fetch even Rs 10 lakh. The situation is exacerbated because the area is notified as an "agency area," intended to protect tribal lands, which restricts sale to outsiders. Desperate for funds, residents are forced into informal, low-value sales.
"As ST lands are protected and cannot be purchased by outsiders, we can't sell our lands legally. If someone needs money, all they do is write a note saying they're selling the land — often for as low as Rs 6 lakh per acre," said resident Thandra Lingaiah. This issue plagues hundreds of the village's 2,100 voters across 800 households.
Caught in a Bureaucratic Trap: No Benefits, Only Barriers
The villagers find themselves in a cruel paradox. While their lands are classified under agency area rules, none of them are issued ST certificates as they do not belong to the community. This denies them access to government job reservations and other welfare schemes meant for STs, while simultaneously blocking their fundamental property rights.
Thota Satish, a BSc graduate, embodies this double loss. "I wrote the constable exam four times and missed qualifying by half or one mark each time. Had I been eligible for an ST certificate, I would have secured a govt job by now," he said, highlighting how the reservation policy, meant for upliftment, has instead become a barrier for them.
Residents unanimously believe that a functional, elected local body is the key to solving their problems. However, their precondition remains unchanged: the posts must first be converted back to the general category. Officials from the State Election Commission have indicated that efforts are ongoing to resolve the long-pending issue, offering a glimmer of hope to a village that has waited 40 years for its voice to be heard.
