Hyderabad: Lobbying for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor has heated up in the Congress.
While deputy mayor G. Raj Kumar of the party is yet to resign, several Congress corporators are putting pressure on the party bosses to replace the him with a new candidate in case the MIM does not vacate the mayor’s seat.
The Congress brass in the state has decided to ask the MIM to vacate the mayor’s seat so that the party can take over the post.
In this connection, the Congress strategy is to make deputy mayor Raj Kumar submit his resignation and then write to the MIM to honour its commitment of vacating the mayor’s seat and ask incumbent Majid Hussain to resign from the top post in GHMC.
Meanwhile, with rumo-urs doing the rounds that the MIM might not give up the mayor’s seat and may retain it in exchange of extending support to the Congress for its Rajya Sabha candidates, Congress corporators aspiring for the top post are willing to settle for the deputy mayor’s post.
“Deputy mayor G. Raj Kumar has completed two years in office. There are so many corporators from the party (Congress) who are waiting. An opportunity can be given to a new candidate to be deputy mayor in case MIM does not vacate the mayor’s seat,” said a senior Congress corporator.
Sources said that the Congress leadership is likely to send a formal letter to MIM soon requesting it to honour the commitment between the two parties and vac-ate the mayor’s seat to pave way for a Congress candidate to take over the post for the fifth and final year of the term. Raj Kumar was not available for comments.
