Hyderabad: MIM move leaves cadres perplexed

Adarsh Nagar: With Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) having won 48 seats for the first time in Hyderabad civic polls, there were speculations that AIMIM would demand Deputy Mayor post against extending supporting to the mayor election from TRS party. However, contrary to that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) party bagged the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Mayor and Deputy Mayor posts with the support from All India Majilis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) party. On the election day, all AMIM corporators and ex-officios raised their hands in support of candidates of Mayor and Deputy Mayor from the pink party. Though the senior leader and highly placed sources of AIMIM, earlier, had told The Hans India that the MIM party would be contesting for the for Mayor and Deputy Mayor elections posts, but later the party decided to go with the TRS party.

Before the GHMC Mayor and Deputy Mayor elections, the AIMIM party conducted an internal meeting at the party headquarters in Darussalam with the senior party leaders and newly elected corporators and decided to extend its support to TRS party, said the party sources. "There's nothing new that Majlis went for alliance with TRS party. After the formantion of Telangana State, in the first Mayor and Deputy Mayor elections MIM was in alliance with the TRS party," party sources said.

With the support from AIMIM, the TRS smoothly won the Mayor and Deputy Mayor elections. The party has 56 corporators out of a total of 150, and 32 ex-officios including MLAs, MLCs, and MPs, who had voted in a group form on the election day. Whereas the BJP has 48 corporators and two ex-officios had only 48 votes, while the AIMIM has 44 corporators and 10 ex-officios. Out of 44 corporators of the AIMIM party, 18 are women among which few were eligible for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

Meanwhile, the BJP hit out at TRS-AIMIM parties saying that "the cat is finally out of the bag," this Mayor and Deputy Mayor elections have unraveled their 7-year-old secret alliance publicly. Earlier, during the civic polls working president IT Industry and Municipal Administration Minister KT Rama Rao asserted that TRS has neither secret arrangement with AIMIM nor it would have a formal alliance ever with MIM party. Even MIM Chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi had also reiterated those comments during GHMC municipal elections. Taking it to the tweeter, on Thursday Asaduddin Owaisi congratulated the new Mayor and Deputy Mayor. He also stated at the end of his tweet that appreciates TRS "for offering us Deputy Mayor's post."