In a major victory for the TRS, party corporator Gadwal Vijayalakshmi was today elected as the new Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Mayor, and Tarnaka corporator Srilatha Sobhan Reddy was elected as the new Deputy Mayor.
Many feel that Vijayalakshmi, daughter of Rajya Sabha MP and senior party leader K Keshava Rao, was reportedly chosen as the TRS candidate for the post as she belongs to the Munnuru Kapu caste, a BC group. This is probably because the TRS had earlier promised to field a candidate from a marginalised community for the post, in an attempt to enable inclusive representation.
While Vijayalakshmi clinched the mayoral post by defeating the BJP's R K Puram corporator Veeranagari Radha, Srilatha Sobhan Reddy was elected as the Deputy Mayor after defeating the BJP candidate for the post, Shanker Yadav.
Speaking on the occasion, both Vijayalakshmi and Srilatha Sobhan Reddy expressed their gratitude to Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao for giving them the chance to contest for the posts and said that they would work towards developing the GHMC area during their tenure.
After the conclusion of the elections, the ruling party's leaders and corporators visited Secunderabad's Telangana Martyrs Memorial to pay their respects to the Telangana agitation martyrs. Minister T Srinivas Yadav, MLC Kavita, MLA Balka Suman, and other senior leaders also accompanied the corporators.
The elections, in which a total of 193 voters, including 149 ward members and 44 ex-officio members participated, were
held just a day after the expiry of the term of the previous GHMC body. The polling was conducted after the completion of the
much-delayed swearing-in ceremony of the 105 newly-elected GHMC corporators, which began at 11:30 this morning.
The coporators were allowed to choose the language in which they would take their oaths of office. They were given the option to choose between English, Hindu, Telugu and Urdu.
What has stirred up quite the controversy is the fact that the MIM had extended its support to the two TRS candidates.
This prompted the BJP leaders present at the GHMC office to allege that the "secret alliance" between the TRS and the MIM was no longer a secret - many BJP workers even said that their party's earlier claims had been vindicated by the conduct of the MIM during the elections today, and added that it was now abundantly clear that the MIM and the TRS were "conjoined twins".
The saffron party's members even raised slogans to show their displeasure at the MIM's decision to back the two TRS candidates.
Speaking on the matter, BJP legislator T Raja Singh said that the TRS had axed its own foot by taking help from the MIM, and that the ruling party would have to pay the price for its mistake in the coming Assembly elections.
What will perhaps fan further controversy is the fact that MIM supremo Asaduddin Owaisi took to Twitter after the elections to congratulate the two TRS candidates on their victory.
Interestingly, another controversy might already have marred the elections held today - Vijaya Reddy, a TRS corporator and daughter of late politician P Janardhan Reddy, boycotted the election process as she was reportedly left upset that the party leadership had decided not to give her the chance to contest for the mayoral post.
The TRS' win today is especially significant for it as the party had reportedly been left worried by the BJP's recent surge in popularity in the state - the saffron party had given the TRS a run for its money with its
stunning win in last year's Dubbaka Assembly by-election, and its
stellar performance in the GHMC elections, also held last year, on December 1.