It has been a long time since one has heard about Bangi Anantaiah, a maverick politician of the Telugu Desam Party who had once served as mayor of Kurnool Municipal Corporation.
Known for wearing strange attires to attract the public attention and taking up innovative protests on the streets of Kurnool, Anantaiah has not been seen and heard in politics for nearly five years now.
On Sunday, Anantaiah was back in the news with his strange attire participating in a programme in Kurnool town.
This time, it is not a protest rally, but a procession in support of YSR Congress party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Anantaiah took out the procession to celebrate the enhancement of pension from Rs 2,500 to Rs 2,750 by the Jagan government with effect from January 1.
Sporting the attire of a woman, Anantaiah carried the picture of Jagan Mohan Reddy on his head and took part in the procession at Kurnool collectorate.
Speaking on the occasion, the former Kurnool Mayor said the people of the state would have life-long gratitude towards the chief minister for implementing welfare schemes for the benefit of the poor.
Interestingly, during the TDP regime also, Anantaiah took part in a similar rally in 2018.
He appeared in a woman’s attire, dancing to the songs in front of the Kurnool Collector Office, praising then chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu for implementing women-oriented schemes such as waiver of Rs 42,000 crore loans of DWCRA and self-help groups.
Earlier, he distributed sweets to all the people of Kurnool for Naidu’s decision to build 6 lakh houses with Rs 16,000 crores for poor under NTR housing scheme.
Before 2014, Anantaiah resigned from the TDP and joined the Congress after he was denied the MLC ticket by Chandrababu Naidu.
However, after the TDP returned to power in AP, he came back to the TDP. In 2019, he joined the YSRC, but nobody acknowledged his defection.
He took part in several agitations like United Andhra movement, price rise and even the movement for special category status. Yet, he did not get any recognition politically.
