VADLURU: Pride and anticipation has swept through Vadluru village in Andhra Pradesh’s East Godavari district as Usha Vance, wife of US Vice President JD Vance has accompanied him on his visit of the country, along with their three children.
Vance and his family have embarked on a four-day visit to the country starting Monday.
The US Second Lady’s ancestors belong to Vadluru village in East Godavari district, a region endowed with greenery and nourished by the plenteous waters of River Godavari.
Vance, accompanied by Indian-origin Second Lady Usha Chilukuri, and their three children– sons Ewan, Vivek and daughter Mirabel, landed in Delhi on a largely personal four-day visit to India that comes amid growing global tensions over the US’ tariff war.
“We all came to know that Usha has come to Delhi today. We, on behalf of the residents of Vadluru, eagerly expect her to come to this village to see her ancestors, temples.” we are all eagerly waiting for her,” PV Ramanaiah, a villager told PTI Videos.
V Badrinath said that since Vadluru is the US Second Lady’s ancestral village, everybody here is elated and hopes that she will visit them.
However, Vadluru does not feature in the itinerary of Usha Vance, prompting locals like P Srinivasa Raju, a former sarpanch of the village, to be better prepared next time.
“We didn’t know that this (Usha’s visit) would be such a sudden programme,” Raju told PTI, adding that over the last 10 days, intelligence and revenue department officials kept visiting Vadluru to gather information on her roots.
According to Raju, Vadluru was earlier located in the undivided West Godavari district but now falls in East Godavari district under Undrajavaram mandal.
“Had we known about Usha Vance’s visit about a fortnight or a month earlier, our village elders would have set off to meet her in some city like Hyderabad or Chennai where she would be visiting,” he said.
Raju said they would have also taken the help of Tourism Minister and Nidadavolu MLA Kandula Durgesh to meet Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to reach out to Usha Vance.
Similarly, C Santhamma, a nonagenarian relative of Usha Vance, said she is very happy to see her relative rising to a great position.
Santhamma said she would not only love to meet Usha Vance but also give her an opportunity to address students of the college were she works as a lecturer.
