The Congress decides to honour the power-sharing pact it had with the MIM.
Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Mayor Banda Karthika Chandra Reddy will resign from her post on Sunday.
The decision was taken in a meeting held at Gandhi Bhavan in Hyderabad on Saturday.
The hour-long meeting, chaired by Pradesh Congress Committee president Botsa Satyanarayana, was attended by ministers J Geetha Reddy, Danam Nagender, P Sabitha Indira Reddy and M Mukesh Goud, along with city MLAs and other leaders. The Mayor herself was also present in the meeting.
The Congress has decided to honour the power-sharing pact it had with the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, and has asked Karthika Reddy to submit her resignation on Sunday.
As per the deal the Congress and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen had in 2009 after the GHMC polls, the Congress candidate held the Mayor's post for a year, while the Deputy Mayor's post was given to the MIM corporator. The parties are supposed to swap the 2 posts after 2 years, and retain the new posts for the next 2 years. The posts would again be swapped in the last year of the term.
Mayor Karthika Reddy tried in vain to get Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and other Congress leaders to let her stay in the post for one more year. The MIM, however, was keen on enforcing post-poll deal with the Congress.
Several MIM corporators are lobbying hard to become the next GHMC Mayor. The strong contenders for the post include present Deputy Mayor Jaffer Hussain Meraj, former Mayor Mir Zulfeqar Ali, ex-chairman of Standing Committee Mohammad Nazeeruddin and Malakpet MLA Ahmed Balala's younger brother and Pathergatti corporator Mohsin Balala.
Similarly, the Congress, too, has many contenders for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor. They include minister Mukesh Goud's brother Madhu Goud, GHMC floor leader K Venkatesh, Harshvardhan Reddy, and Sunita Prakash Goud.
The GHMC Council will have to accept Karthika Reddy's resignation and hold fresh elections for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor. However, the election of a new Mayor might take place only after 2 weeks. (INN)