Congress bags mayor's seat in Hyderabad

Banda Karthika Reddy of the Congress has been unanimously elected as the mayor of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). Majlis Ittehadul-e-Muslimeen corporator Zaffer Hussain has been elected as the deputy mayor in the elections held at the Jubilee Hall here today.

The Congress and the MIM have reached an understanding over the sharing of mayor and deputy mayor posts which paved the way for the unanimous election of the two. However, both parties did not spell out whether the posts would be shared on a rotation basis.

"That will be decided later," leaders of the two parties said. Karthika Reddy has been elected as GHMC corporator from the Tarnaka division while Hussain was elected from Toli Chowki.

The Congress has emerged as the single largest party in the GHMC Council with 52 members while the MIM has 43. The Telugu Desam Party, with 45 corporators, will be the main opposition.

With the election process getting completed unopposed, the ex-officio members (MPs, MLAs and MLCs) who were supposed to hold the key were left with no role to play.

Hyderabad district collector Navin Mittal presided over the election process while labour commissioner D Srinivasulu acted as the State Election commission's observer.

Earlier, the newly-elected 150 corporators were administered the oath by the district Collector. Meanwhile, Congress sources said a strong demand was raised for appointing a backward class leader to the mayor’s post but ultimately Karthika Reddy’s candidature was accepted following a directive from the party "high command."

he demand for electing a BC mayor was raised at the breakfast meeting held at the state Congress headquarters Gandhi Bhavan here today. Chief minister K Rosaiah, PCC president D Srinivas and other senior leaders attended the meeting.

The demand for appointing a BC as Mayor notwithstanding, they made the 52 newly-elected corporators to pass a resolution authorising the party high command to take a decision. Accordingly, Karthika Reddy’s name was cleared by the high command, Congress sources here said.