Hyderabad: The Congress which had asked the MIM to vacate the seat of the Hyderabad Mayor a month back, made a complete U turn on Saturday and rejected the resignation of Mayor Majid Hussain of the MIM.
The move by the Congress in ‘sacrificing’ the Mayor’s seat is being viewed as a desperate attempt to make up with the MIM after relations got strained during the regime of former chief minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy. The Congress is trying to forge at least a “strategic pre-poll understanding” if not an alliance with the MIM in the ensuing general elections.
However, the Congress move in the GHMC general council was described by the MIM leaders as “one-sided love” as the MIM was not interested in any sort of pre poll understanding. Political pundits said that of late the MIM has been giving indications of leaning towards the TRS that is wooing it. The fear that the MIM would go along with the TRS could be one of the reasons for the Congress gifting back the Mayor’s seat to the MIM.
The MIM had voted for Congress candidate M.A. Khan in the recently held Rajya Sabha elections and Congress is reciprocating to it. The Congress gifted back the coveted seat to the Mayor following directions from the high command in Delhi, said a Congress leader.
However, Congress floor leader in GHMC Diddi Rambabu said: “The resignation was rejected because our senior Congress leaders are in Delhi finalising the candidates for Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. They are busy and are not able to focus on selection of Mayor candidate from the party. We will take over the Mayor’s seat from the MIM in May-June after the general election process is completed, he said.
The entire drama unfolded around 12 noon, one-and-a-half hour behind scheduled time of the council meeting, and ended within 5 minutes with Congress rejecting the resignation and MIM floor leader Md Nazeeruddin stating they had no objection to the stand taken by the Congress.
The TDP and BJP corporators walked out of the council hall describing it as a drama between Congress and MIM. The TDP insisted on Mayor Majid Hussain to explain reasons for his resignation, and Congress for rejecting it.
