Congress emerges single largest party in Hyderabad civic polls

The main opposition Telugu Desam Party gave a tough fight to the Congress and came close second with 45 seats and the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen was close third with 43 seats.

The failure of the Congress to secure a clear majority in the corporation has thrown open the possibility of an understanding between it and the MIM. Sources in both the parties said that such an understanding was possible on the basis of 'give-and-take' as happened in the past. Two parties were likely to share the key posts of mayor, deputy mayor and chairman of the standing committee on rotation basis. The election of the mayor and the deputy mayor is due on December 4.

The electoral college, which elects the mayor and the deputy mayor also includes the Members of Parliament, assembly and council and the Congress and MIM together have a clear majority in this college. But the opposition parties have filed a petition in the high court challenging the ex-officio members' right to vote in the municipal corporation. The HC has reserved the judgement on the issue.

While the MIM retained its hold over the Muslim dominated old city and also bagged some seats in the new city areas, it was unable to retain its past position of the singe large party that it had secured in almost every election of erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad.

Many areas of the city, especially the outskirts, witnessed a close fight between the traditional rivals Congress and the TDP.

The TDP virtually swept the areas with sizeable population of Andhra settlers, mostly the outskirts of the city, which were merged into the city municipal limits to form the Greater Hyderabad.

While the main contest was among the three parties, the smaller parties were wiped out. The Bharatiya Janata Party, once a major force in Hyderabad, was reduced to five seats, the new parties like the Praja Rajyam of Telugu super star Chiranjeevi and the Lok Satta could not even open their accounts.

Same was the fate of the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India-Marxist, which were allotted three seats each by the Telugu Desam. MIM's rival Majlis Bachao Tehreek's Amjadulla Khan Khalid retained his seat. He was elected from Azampura.

Lok Satta suffered a big set back as TDP swept most of the divisions under Kukatpally assembly constituency which was bagged by the Lok Satta president Jayprakash Narayan.

The 43 winners of MIM include ten women, three of them from Hindu community. On the whole, seven non-Muslim candidates were elected on MIM tickets. MIM's successful women candidates include Tara Bai from Jangamet, A Aruna from Karwan and Sunnam Srilata from Puranapul.

Muslim women elected include Qamarunnisa Begum (Nawabsahab Kunta), Noorjahan Begum (Falaknuma), Mohsina Parveen (Vijaynagar colony), Najma Sultana (Nanal Nagar) , Malikunnisa Begum (Asifnagar), Ameena Begum (Jahanuma) and Zohra Begum (Red Hills).

The seats won by the BJP include Mehdipatanam, Goshamahal, Kurmaguda and Gaddimalkapur. Four independents including two Congress rebels were also elected. In an interesting result, A Jitendar, son of former BJP MP A Narendra was elected form Gowlipur in old city on Congress ticket.

While Congress continue to have a sway over Khairatabad and Jubilee Hills assembly constituencies, it suffered setbacks in LB Nagar and Maheshwaram constituencies, where the TDP secured most of the seats.

These results were also a set back to the supporters of late Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajashekhara Reddy's son Jaganmohan Reddy as he had extensively campaigned in these constituencies. Maheshwaram is represented in the state assembly by state home minister Sabita Indra Reddy and LB Nagar by Sudheer Reddy, both of them followers of Jagan.