Hyderabad Mayor, Deputy Mayor Elections Today

The stage is set for the election of mayor and deputy mayor of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) on Tuesday. The two top posts fell vacant after Banda Karthika Reddy and Jaffer Hussain resigned as mayor and deputy mayor respectively a couple of weeks ago. The election would be held at the council hall of the GHMC headquarters at 11 am.

 

First, the mayor's election would be held which would be followed by the polls for the deputy mayor. In the voice-vote election, 216 voters, including 150 elected corporators and 66 ex-officio members like MLAs, MLCs and MPs in the Greater Hyderabad, would exercise their franchise. Of the total voters, Congress has 93 members, including 52 elected corporators, MIM has 53 along with 43 elected corporators and Telugu Desam Party has the strength of 50, including 45 corporators.

 

 

The State Election Commission (SEC) has appointed Neerabh Kumar Prasad, managing director of AP Housing Corporation, as the election observer and Hyderabad district collector Natarajan Gulzar would preside over the special meeting and conduct the election. The Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) and Congress, which have an alliance, would announce the name of their candidates for mayor and deputy mayor posts a few hours before the election. As part of the agreement, the mayor post would go to the MIM and deputy mayor to the Congress.

 

The MIM is reportedly considering the names of former mayor and Hussaini Alam corporator Zulfeqar Ali, former deputy mayor Jaffer Hussain and a few others like Mohsin Balala, corporator from Pathergatti, for the mayor post. The MIM candidate would be in the top post for the next two years as per the agreement between the Congress and MIM. The last one year of the five-year term would again go to the Congress candidate.

 

Meanwhile, the Congress has reportedly decided to give the deputy mayor post to a backward class corporator from peripheral areas of the city. The Congress is reportedly considering the names of Hafeezpet corporator V Jagadishwar Goud, Kukatpally corporator G Vengal Rao and Old Bowenpally corporator and PRP lone corporator M Narsimha Yadav. If the party wants to consider other persons, Golnaka corporator and GHMC floor leader Kaleru Venkatesh and others are in the race.

Modi Is Not Our PM: Owaisi

MIM is a recognized state political party based in the Indian state of Telangana, with its head office in the old city of Hyderabad, which has its roots in the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen founded in 1927. Unlike most of the regional and national level parties, MIM party leaders ‘fight’ only for the well-being of Muslims, whereas no other party has such communal feelings. In their each and every speech, MIM leaders speak only about Muslims. If these leaders are here to fight for Muslims, then why there are no development works are happening in old city area for decades. Akbaruddin Owaisi faced criticism for making hate remarks on Narendra Modi and Hindus. Recently, his elder brother Asaduddin Owaisi made some notorious annotations. In a one-on-one debate between BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra and Asaduddin Owaisi on the topic of demonetization in a popular Hindi channel, the former left no stone unturned in exposing the latter’s communal designs. Owaisi claimed how most of the Muslim community still remains unbanked and that demonetization has caused severe inconvenience to Muslims. He even went on to say that ATM’s in Muslim-dominated areas weren’t fed enough money. He indirectly alleged that the Modi government hadn’t done anything for Muslims. Even after being pressurized Owaisi didn’t call Narendra Modi as his Prime Minister. He went on said, “Your Prime Minister…” On the other hand, Sambit spoke wisely and called Owaisi a leader of small stature because he talked only of Muslims. He said that no area was Muslim or Hindu and that all areas belonged to India. Owaisi was constantly quoting an RBI report, to which Sambit challenged him to show where the RBI had used the word ‘Muslim’. Sambit even said that if a Muslim leader speaks of Muslims it’s not an issue, but the moment a VHP leader speaks of Hindus people go crazy accusing them of imposing the Hindutva ideology. The most amazing of his counters was to Owaisi’s claims of Muslims not having been brought into the banking system. Sambit said that when banks or ATMs are to be opened in Muslim areas leaders like Owaisi shout that banking is un-Islamic and that Muslims should refrain from it! This video of debate between Sambit Patra and Asaduddin Owaisi is going viral in social media.