Keen tussle on cards in GVMC standing committee election

VISAKHAPATNAM: The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) Standing Committee elections, scheduled for August 7, have become a closely contested battle between the YSRCP and the NDA alliance. Both sides are short of one or two votes needed for victory. The elections will be conducted through ballot. In the wake of some YSRCP corporators joining the opposition, the party president, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, summoned all his party corporators to Tadepalli to prevent further defections.
A majority of the YSRCP corporators on Thursday led by North Andhra regional in charge and Rajya Sabha Member YV Subba Reddy, North Constituency coordinator KK Raju, and former MLA Tippala Gurumurthy Reddy, met with the former CM Jagan, who reportedly gave them instructions.
There are allegations that a few other YSRCP members are inclined to join the NDA alliance parties. The local MLAs and MPs of the NDA alliance are keenly focused on the standing committee elections to demonstrate their strength and believe that these elections could lead to the removal of the Mayor through a no-confidence motion.
Ten nominations each from the NDA alliance and YSRCP were filed for the 10 standing committee posts, totaling 20 nominations. In the 2021 elections, YSRCP won 58 out of 98 corporator seats, while TDP secured 30 wards or divisions, Janasena won three, and CPI, CPM, and BJP won one each. Independents emerged victorious in four wards. However, 12 YSRCP corporators switched allegiance to TDP (7) and Janasena (5), reducing the YSRCP's strength from 58 to 48, while the NDA alliance now has 47 members. Vamsikrishna Srinivas, who was elected as an MLC from YSRCP, joined Janasena before the elections and became an MLA. With the current strength of the GVMC at 97, a total of 49 votes are required for victory in the standing committee elections.