Man belonging to BC caste elected as sarpanch with ST certificate, complaint lodged

A complaint has been filed alleging that a sarpanch in Kothagudem was elected using a fake ST caste certificate. Officials have ordered an inquiry into the matter following claims that documents were manipulated to secure reservation benefits

Kothagudem: An incident of a candidate getting elected as sarpanch by falsely claiming that he belongs to a Scheduled Tribe (ST) caste came to light at Venkatesh Khani gram panchayat of Chunchupally mandal in the district.

One of the contesting candidates, Boggam Manjula, lodged a complaint with Tahsildar Panem Krishna on Thursday, seeking cancellation of the ST certificate issued to the winning candidate Bolla Ravinder. He was elected in the elections held on December 14, 2025.

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She alleged that Ravinder, who belongs to the Mudiraj community, a backward caste, got elected as sarpanch by claiming his name as Boggam Ravinder with an ST Koya caste certificate issued by the local tahsildar office. He did so as the sarpanch post was reserved for STs.

Bolla Ravinder misled the government and election officials by changing his name to Boggam Ravinder and obtaining a caste certificate through the revenue authorities based on a study certificate issued by the school where he studied.

However, his driving licence, 2018-19 election voter list, ration card, family certificate and Aadhaar card show his name as Bolla Ravinder. It was alleged that the revenue officials issued the ST certificate without any proper enquiry.

Even in the election affidavit, he clearly stated that his surname was Bolla earlier and it was changed to Boggam. Hence, the ST certificate issued to Ravinder should be cancelled and legal action initiated against him for deceiving election officials, Manjula demanded.

She maintained that during the elections she had raised objections against the caste certificate issued to Ravinder, but the election officials did not pay any attention to her complaints. The caste background of Ravinder was obtained through an RTI petition by an activist, Thota Akhil.

Tahsildar Krishna referred the matter to the revenue inspector, directing him to carry out an enquiry and submit a report. Further action would be taken based on the report, he said.