Following the TRS’ clean sweep in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections, in which Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s son K.T. Rama Rao was the campaign in-charge, the former is all set to reward him with the municipal administration portfolio next week.
KTR, who is the IT and Panchayat Raj Minister, will thus become the virtual no. 2 in the KCR Cabinet, though there are two deputy CMs and several senior ministers. Currently, the municipal administration portfolio is with the CM.
Of the 150 divisions in the GHMC, Telangana Rashtra Samithi won 99 seats, followed by MIM (44), BJP (4), Congress (2) and TDP (1). The TDP and BJP had an alliance. The polling was held on Tuesday and the counting of votes on Friday.
This is the first time that any party bagged 99 seats in the GHMC since it was formed in 2008. In the 2009 elections, Congress got 52, MIM 43, TDP 35 and BJP 5, while TRS opted out of the fray due to the Telangana stir.
Bagging 99 seats is a major political achievement for the TRS as Hyderabad was never its stronghold. In the 2002 elections, it had got only two seats out of the 100 divisions. Even in the 2014 general elections, TRS won just two out of 21 Assembly segments under GHMC limits. The predominance of Seemandhra settlers and the absence of Telangana sentiment in the city had made things difficult for TRS.
Since the results were announced on Friday night, there are celebrations in the TRS camp, as all the ministers and legislators and thousands of senior leaders jostled to greet KTR. KTR went to his father’s camp office at Begumpet in the city and sought his blessings. Hundreds of party activists raised slogans hailing KTR. KCR’s daughter and Nizamabad MP Kavitha too joined the celebrations and all the family members posed for selfies.
Addressing a media conference at the TRS headquarters, Telangana Bhawan, KCR on Friday night complimented each and everyone in the party for the GHMC victory. “It’s not proper to credit this win to any single individual. We won because of the love and affection of all sections of people of this great city. We will keep our promises,” said KCR.
Sources said that the CM is planning to constitute a high profile body for the overall development of Hyderabad under the chairmanship of KTR. KTR would oversee the spending of around Rs 10,000 crore in the next three years to provide basic infrastructure and facilities in the city.
The new mayor will be elected on Thursday.
- Advertisement -