Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s Vijayalakshmi R. Gadwal (daughter of veteran leader KK) was elected as the new Mayor of Greater Hyderabad on Thursday. Mothe Srilatha, also of TRS, was elected Deputy Mayor in the election by show of hands at the first meeting of newly elected council of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). For the first time in the municipal body’s history, women have been elected to the posts of both Mayor and Deputy Mayor.
Vijayalakshmi is daughter of TRS general secretary and Rajya Sabha member K. Keshav Rao. She was elected from Banjara Hills division in the GHMC polls held in December. Srilatha was elected corporator from Tarnaka division. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) contested for both the posts, fielding Radha Reddy and Shankar Yadav for Mayor and Deputy Mayor respectively. As TRS had comfortable majority in the council and MIM too backed it, both its candidates were declared elected.
The first stop of the newly elected Hyderabad Mayor and her deputy was at Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao’s residence. CM KCR asked them to enhance the image of Hyderabad.
“Among crores of the people, only a handful get the chance to become public representatives. But, what is more important is, how to utilise the opportunity. These are the times where even if you are good, charges are levelled against you. If you give even a small chance, you will get a bad name. Hence, act with caution. There should not be any change in the attire, language or behaviour. If you indulge in unnecessary and irrelevant talk there is no gain but you may land yourself up in trouble. Hence speak carefully. Don’t discriminate against people who come to you on the basis of their caste or religion. Comfort them and take care of them. Give them the due respect. Help them as much as possible. Don’t tell lies. Make a committed effort to solve the problems,” the CM advised.
The 150-member GHMC, TRS had bagged 56 seats while BJP won 48 seats. One of the BJP corporators died of Covid after the election. MIM won 44 seats and Congress two. A total 44 ex-officio members (MPs, MLAs and MLCs) were also eligible to vote to elect Mayor and Deputy Mayor. TRS had the highest number of ex-officio members at 32, followed by MIM at 10 and BJP at two.
The saffron party, which had just four seats in the previous body, bagged second highest number of seats due to high-pitch campaign involving party’s national president J.P. Nadda, union Home Minister Amit Shah and other central leaders. Though MIM retained 44 seats it had won in 2016, the party was once again deprived of the role of kingmaker in the municipal body.