Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao with Mayor Vijayalakshmi R Gadwal and Deputy Mayor M Srilatha Reddy at Pragathi Bhavan.
Hyderabad: Two women, both from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, will helm the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation after the Mayoral elections on Thursday saw the TRS swatting away all claims of the Bharatiya Janata Party that a BJP candidate would become the Hyderabad Mayor.
It did not take even 20 minutes for the BJP’s claims to be punctured as TRS corporator from Banjara Hills division Vijayalakshmi R Gadwal was elected as the new Mayor while the TRS corporator from Tarnaka M Srilatha Reddy won the Deputy Mayor election as well. There was no tussle or drama with the TRS nominees winning the elections hands down literally, through show of hands though the BJP fielded RK Puram division corporator V Radha Reddy as the Mayoral candidate and Begum Bazar division candidate Shanker Yadav as the Deputy Mayor candidate.
“Health, drainage and provision of community halls will be my priority areas. The focus will be on improving basic amenities,” Vijayalakshmi R Gadwal said after winning the elections, which was a near walkover for the TRS, which had emerged the single largest party by winning 56 of the 150 divisions in the December 1 GHMC elections, apart from enjoying the support of 32 ex-officio members, including MPs, MLCs and MLAs, taking its total tally of votes to 88.
The BJP, which had won in 48 divisions, however had one member less after the unfortunate death of Lingojiguda corporator A Ramesh Goud. The national ruling party had only two ex-officio member votes.
Both the Mayor and Deputy Mayor elections were conducted by a show of hands. When Presiding Officer Swetha Mohanthy asked members to raise their hands in support of the Mayor candidate, TRS nominee Vijayalakshmi emerged victorious with clear majority. Same was the case with Deputy Mayor Elections as TRS nominee Srilatha won convincingly. Though the TRS had the requisite numbers, the AIMIM party too extended its support to the TRS nominees. The only two corporators of the Congress desisted from voting and staged a walkout.
Of the 147 members, three Rajya Sabha members, 10 MLCs and 20 MLAs participated in the voting. The Presiding Officer presented the certificates to both the winning candidates around 1 pm.
Earlier at 11 am, the oath-taking ceremony of the newly-elected corporators was conducted, followed by the Mayor and Deputy Mayor elections. After the elections, both Mayor and Deputy Mayor paid their tributes to Telangana Martyrs at Gun Park and met Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao and expressed their gratitude for his support.