Hyderabad: After chalking out plans for capturing the top seats of Mayor and Deputy Mayor, the TRS aims to keep the BJP out of the standing committee meetings by way of resort to preferential voting in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) council.
The TRS-AIMIM members have the required strength to elect all 15 standing committee members.
According to the GHMC Act, 10 corporators from any political shade could elect one standing committee member. If more than 15 candidates are in the fray, a vote would follow.
TRS sources said that though the BJP can nominate its standing committee members, the saffron party did not have a majority in the council. With 100 corporators, the TRS and the MIM would take advantage and elect all 15 members through secret ballot.
However, officials said as per the GHMC Act, all parties will have their due share based on the number of corporators elected from each party. The TRS would have six members, BJP five and MIM four. However, these officials said there are brighter chances of preferential voting.
As per the GHMC Act, a standing committee consisting of not less than five and not more than 15 members can be chosen by the corporators from among themselves. Every issue shall be decided by majority vote in the standing committee and the presiding authority will have a second or casting vote when required so.
The members of the standing committee shall hold office for a period of one year from the date of their selection. The Mayor or in his absence the deputy mayor shall be the ex-officio chairperson of the standing committee.
A GHMC official said it would conduct co-option and standing committee election soon after the oath-taking ceremony of the 150 ward members followed by the mayoral election. The term of the existing standing committee would expire on February 10. The nodal officer would issue a separate notification to conduct standing committee election. Asked about the lacunae in the GHMC Act pertaining to preferential voting, the official refused to comment.
