By Ismail Khan, TwoCircles.net
Hyderabad: Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Mayor Banda Karthika Reddy’s tenure seems to come to an end shortly. The All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) MLA from the city and the floor leader in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly, Akbaruddin Owaisi met the chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy and Pradesh Congress Committee president Botsa Satyanarayana in this regard and asked them to honour their seat-sharing agreement with the MIM. As per the pact, the mayor post would be held by the Congress for the first two years and the MIM for the next two.
It can be expected that the city may have a new Mayor on December 4th this year. The question about who will be the mayor for the fifth year is still not clear as the Congress and MIM have not come to a conclusion in this regard. The race for the mayor’s seat has heat up with corporators from the Majlis indulging in hectic lobbying for the coveted post. The competition is equally keen for the deputy mayor’s post as Congress corporators flock to the offices of senior leaders to lobby for a seat.
The labour minister, Mr Danam Nagender, said the Congress will abide by its “mayoral seat agreement” with the MIM. However, he stirred a hornet’s nest when he said that the Congress will shortly take a decision on sharing the mayor’s seat for the “contentious third year”. The minister also said that the Congress may give the post of deputy mayor for one year each to two candidates so as to allow two candidates to serve in the post, and not confine it to one candidate as has been the case with MIM. Though the pact between the MIM and Congress was to share the mayor’s seat for two years each, with the candidate for the fifth and final year to be decided later, the letters submitted by the MIM to the Congress indicate that MIM expects to retain the post for the fifth year as well.
The GHMC polls were held on 23rd November, 2009. In the 150 seats municipal corporation congress won 53 seats, TDP 45, MIM 43, BJP 5, and Others 4.
Among the MIM front runners are former mayor and present corporator, Mr Mir Zulfeqar Ali; deputy mayor Jaffar Hussain; former standing committee chairperson Yasmeena Sultana and Mohsin Balala, brother of MIM MLA Ahmed Balala. The GHMC secretary Mr M.S.S. Somaraju said a change of mayors can be effected only when the mayor resigns or through a no-confidence motion. But, under the GHMC Act, a no-trust cannot be moved against the mayor until the candidate completes four years in office.
Link:
http://www.ghmc.gov.in/