Telangana elected its first female mayor to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) on Thursday, since the creation of the state in 2014. The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) candidate Gadwal Vijayalakshmi along with deputy mayor Mothe Srilatha Reddy, also from the TRS, won a tightly contested election. Vijayalakshmi defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) candidate Radha Dheeraj Reddy for Thursday’s historic win.
AIMIM’s contribution
The first citizen of Hyderabad was elected by a show of hands. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) extended support to Vijayalakshmi’s nomination at the eleventh hour. The Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM had retained power in all of its 44 seats in the elections to the GHMC, held on December 1 of last year. Owaisi tweeted his congratulations to the TRS for winning the posts of mayor and deputy mayor, adding that public works will be a core area of concern for the GHMC. He also thanked TRS for offering AIMIM the post of deputy mayor.
“Congratulations to the newly elected Mayor & Deputy Mayor of GHMC. Hope that, under their leadership, Hyderabad will be taken to new heights and public works will be actively taken up in areas that need them the most, including Old City of Hyderabad,” Owaisi tweeted.
The support extended by the AIMIM to the TRS was a last-minute switch. At around 12:30pm on Thursday, a few hours before the voting was supposed to be held, the AIMIM announced it was dropping out of the GHMC mayoral polls, much to the surprise of the TRS’s main rival the BJP.
{{/usCountry}}The support extended by the AIMIM to the TRS was a last-minute switch. At around 12:30pm on Thursday, a few hours before the voting was supposed to be held, the AIMIM announced it was dropping out of the GHMC mayoral polls, much to the surprise of the TRS’s main rival the BJP.
{{/usCountry}}GHMC polls vs the mayoral elections
The GHMC elections on December 1 last year witnessed a close fight between the K Chandrashekar Rao-led TRS and the BJP. In the 150-member GHMC council, a party needs to win 76 seats to command an absolute majority. The TRS won 56 and the BJP with 48 seats came a close second but both failed to attain majority. The AIMIM won in all of its 44 seats and Congress fared the worst with just two seats under its belt.
The TRS was hopeful of winning the mayoral elections because it had 38 co-option members, i.e. members to the municipal corporation who had been appointed due to their interests, experience, or skill sets. The BJP had the support of only two such members and the AIMIM had 10. The number of members taking part in Thursday’s vote stood at 193. The TRS required 97 votes to grab the two top posts. After combining the votes of 56 elected corporators and 32 co-option members, it fell short by nine votes, raising the bar of the contest for the BJP. However, the AIMIM dropped out of the race at the very last minute, even though they had initially fielded two candidates, and extended support to TRS helping them win both posts.