Deputy mayor to resign today

HYDERABAD: Paving the way for the Congress and MIM swapping the posts of mayor and deputy mayor of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), deputy mayor and MIM corporator Jaffer Hussain Meraj will submit his resignation to mayor Banda Karthika Reddy at her chambers on Friday afternoon.
It may be recalled that a week ago, mayor Karthika Reddy had submitted her resignation to GHMC commissioner MT Krishna Babu, which would be accepted and confirmed by the GHMC council at the special meeting on December 17.As part of the power sharing agreement, an MIM corporator will take over as mayor in place of Karthika Reddy while the Congress will take over the post of deputy mayor from MIM’s Meraj. Since the mayor will step down on December 17 and the deputy mayor’s resignation has to be accepted before that, Meraj has decided to step down a day before the special meet. Now, the new mayor and deputy mayor will be elected on the same day.
Till date, both the Congress and MIM are keeping the names of their candidates a secret. According to party sources, the names of the new mayor and deputy mayor will be announced officially a few hours before the scheduled election.
Meanwhile, the BJP has asked the State Election Commission (SEC) and GHMC commissioner to declare its candidate C Uday Kumar as elected from Langar Houz division following the court order on the election of existing corporator Ravi Yadav of MIM.