Hyderabad: The coast is clear for the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to bag the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) mayor and deputy posts, as the All India Majilis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) is not going to contest and will also support the TRS.
The development was confirmed by a senior leader and official functionary of the AIMIM to siasat.com. “We won’t be putting up any candidate, and our corporators and ex-officio members will support the TRS. Earlier also such alliances had taken place, so this is nothing new,” said the AIMIM leader.
With this, the TRS will have smooth sailing in the GHMC mayor and deputy mayor elections, as it has 56 corporators (out of the total 150), and 32 ex-officio members (MLAs, MLCs and MPs), who will participate in the polling. The BJP has 48 corporators and two ex-officio members (has only 48 votes for today), while the AIMIM has 44 corporators and 10 ex-officio members.
New corporators take oath
On Thursday morning around 10: 30 a.m., all the newly elected corporators took their oath, and were sworn into office. The polling for the mayor and deputy mayor posts will begin at 12:30 p.m., after which the winners will be declared.
For the election to be held, a quorum of 50 per cent attendance is compulsory. Moreover, there is a chance that the BJP, which was in a strong position earlier with 50 votes (48 corporators plus two ex-officio seats). However, two one corporator-elect from Lingojiguda Akula Ramesh has died since, while it is learnt that another ex-officio member is absent for today’s vote.
Earlier, it was expected that the BJP will give the TRS a tough fight, but with this development, the former can only delay the process as it does not have enough votes to win either of the seats.