By IANS,
Hyderabad : The ruling Congress party in Andhra Pradesh has sought the Greater Hyderabad mayor’s post for one more year even as the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) is preparing to nominate its candidate for the coveted job.
The two parties are sharing power in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and as per their agreement they will share the mayor’s post for two years each while the candidate for the fifth year will be decided later.
As the term of Congress party’s B. Karthika Reddy is due to end Dec 4, the MIM has been asking the ruling party to make way for its candidate to take over as the new mayor.
MIM leader in the state assembly Akbaruddin Owaisi Friday called on state Congress chief Botsa Satyanrayana, demanding that the Congress honor the pact by handing over the post to MIM.
Satyanarayana later told reporters that he conveyed to the MIM leader that Congress wants to continue to hold the post for one more year.
As the MIM is not willing to accept this, Satyanarayana said a decision on the issue would be taken after talks with Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, party’s Hyderabad unit president and legislators from the state capital.
MIM leaders already met the chief minister to stake claim for the mayor’s post. The party also wrote to him and the state Congress chief.
In 2009 elections to the 150-member GHMC, Congress emerged the single largest party with 52 seats while MIM secured 43.
The two parties entered an agreement to share the posts of mayor and deputy mayor. For the first two years Karthika Reddy of Congress became mayor while Jaffar Hussain Meraj of MIM was nominated her deputy.