Hyderabad: After an exercise spread over two months, the municipal administration and urban development (MA&UD) department has determined that only 44 of 52 ex-officio members belonging to various parties will be eligible for voting in the GHMC council elections on February 11.
These 44 are from the TRS, MIM and the BJP. None from the Congress can vote as MP A. Revanth Reddy has utilised his vote in the Boduppal Municipal Corporation.
No invitation has been extended to ex-officio members who are ineligible to vote on the day mayoral elections are to be held. However, all 52 members (TRS 38, MIM 10, BJP 3 and Congress 1) will be allowed participate in the remaining GHMC council meetings.
Hyderabad collector Swetha Mohanthy, who is the presiding officer for the Mayor and Deputy Mayor elections, scheduled to be held on February 11, inspected the arrangements being made in this regard at the council hall. As per the seating arrangements, Cabinet ministers and MPs will be seated in the front row, followed by MLAs, MLCs and corporators.
The 56 TRS corporators will sit on the extreme left side of the council hall, 44 of MIM in the centre, 48 of BJP on the right and two Congress corporators on the extreme right.
The mayor will be elected soon after new corporators are administered their oath. The Deputy Mayor will be elected thereafter. If, for any reason, the mayoral elections are not held on February 11, polling will be held the next day – February 12 — even if it is a holiday for the GHMC.
According to official records, ex-officio members of the TRS have been reduced from 38 to 32 since MLA and MLCs Yegge Mallesham, Garikapati Rammohan Rao, Katepally Janardhan Reddy and minister Sabitha Indra Reddy utilised their votes in the Tukkuguda municipality. They are thus ineligible to vote in GHMC polls.
MLA Manchireddy Kishan Reddy, MLC M. Srinivas Reddy and Rajya Sabha MP Banda Prakash have cast their vote in Adibatla municipality. MLCs Kurumaiahgari Naveen Kumar and Patnam Mahender Reddy have utilised their vote in Pedda Amberpet municipality.
Rajendranagar MLA T. Prakash Goud and Chevella MP Gaddam Ranjith Reddy have voted in the Narsingi municipality; labour minister Ch. Malla Reddy and MP A. Revanth Reddy in the Boduppal Municipal Corporation and MLA K.P. Vivekananda in the Kompally municipality.
TRS is learnt to have chalked out plans to elect a Mayor from its own party without the support of MIM. After the newly elected corporators take oath, a quorum of at least 50 per cent of elected members is required for electing the Mayor and his deputy. Majority corporators, including ex-officio members, can elect the Mayor and Deputy Mayor without the support of any political party, whose members can also avoid participating in the meeting. Technically, the TRS does not even require the support of its 32 ex-officio members to elect one of its corporators as the Mayor. The [resence of MIM‘s 10 and BJP two ex-officio members will in no way affect the outcome of the mayoral polls.
