The probability that Hyderabad Mayor Banda Karthika Reddy will be able to chair the next General Council meeting scheduled for December 21st seems remote, if the ruling party and opposition corporators are to be believed.
Congress and the Telugu Desam Party corporators, on condition of anonymity, said that the issue of replacing the Mayor was under serious consideration by the Pradesh Congress Committee after the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) demanded her replacement.
The corporators said that Karthika Reddy had invited the backlash from MIM on herself by complaining to Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy about the 'non-cooperative' behaviour of the Standing Committee members of the MIM in the meetings.
The Mayor had complained to Kiran Reddy that the 'adamant' attitude of the MIM members, who refused to cooperate with the Standing Committee, was denting the Congress image.
She is believed to have told the Chief Minister that the MIM, though an ally of the Congress, was acting as if it was the Opposition.
Sources say that the MIM had taken these complaints seriously enough to press the Congress for a change of the Mayor.
When asked to confirm if the MIM was indeed demanding a change of the Mayor, party Floor Leader declined to comment.
Even Congress Floor Leader Kaleru Venkatesh said that there was no indication that the Mayor was going to change, but sources in the GHMC insist that Karthika Reddy was on her way out.
Karthika Reddy might have been naive in complaining against an ally of the ruling party, sources said. According to sources, this naivety will cost the Mayor her job.
For the MIM, getting the Mayor changed would be quite easy, since the big party in the GHMC, the TDP, has often enough complained that the real show was being run by Karthi Reddy's husband Chandra Reddy.
There is no question that the Mayor can rely on the TDP to bail her out in the GHMC which is split almost three-way as far as the number of corporators is concerned.