Baldiya Mayor Elections before Feb 10

Hyderabad : Baldiya Elections to the posts of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor will be held before February 10 during the first meeting of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), which will be conducted following publication of the elected members gazette after January 10.

As per the GHMC Act, the first meeting after general elections of Municipal Corporation has to be held within a month of the publication of names of elected candidates in the gazette by the State Election Commission.

According to a senior official from the State Election Commission, from the date of first meeting, the five year-term of the new body will commence. Accordingly, if the names of the elected members are published in the gazette before January 10, 2021, the first meeting is to be held before February 10. It will be during this meeting that the elections to the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor will be conducted.

Consequently, the existing body will be dissolved and the new body will commence its term. As per the rules, the existing body cannot be dissolved before the expiry of its five year-term, the official said.

In the election of Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Hyderabad, both 150 corporators and 45 ex-officio members are eligible to cast their votes. In order to win the election, a party needs 98 votes which is also termed as the magic number.

In GHMC, there are 52 ex-officio members. However, seven of them are not eligible to participate in the election of Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Hyderabad as they have already cast their votes in another corporation or council which fell under their jurisdiction.

Out of the remaining 45 members, 31, 10, 3 and 1 belongs to TRS, AIMIM, BJP and Congress respectively.

As TRS has 87 votes of 31 ex-officio members and 56 corporators who have won in the recently held GHMC election, it falls short of 11 votes to win the election.

MIM Will be the King Maker:

In the given scenario, TRS has an option to form an alliance with AIMIM party that has won 44 coporator seats.

It is to mention here that the SEC had notified elections to GHMC before expiry of its term on November 17 and the results were declared on December 4. The GHMC Act stipulates that elections to GHMC shall be held within three months before expiry of its term. As per the provisions, the five year-term of the existing elected body of GHMC cannot be curtailed and it shall continue till February 10, 2021.

The last Ordinary elections to GHMC were held in January and February 2016. Its five year-term commenced from February 11, 2016 and will expire on February 10, 2021.

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