HYDERABAD, 26 January — The ruling Telugu Desam Party wrested control of the municipal corporation of Hyderabad in a fierce poll battle with Majlis-e-Ittehaadul Muslimeen.
Telugu Desam candidate Teegala Krishna Reddy won the mayor’s post in Hyderabad, defeating his MIM rival, Mir Zulfeqar Ali, by a slender margin of 21,534 votes. Congress nominee D. Nagender finished a poor third in the mayoral race.
The TDP has demanded recounting of votes in view of alleged irregularities.
Counting of votes in the direct election for mayor, taken up on Thursday morning, continued till the early hours yesterday since a total of 57 candidates were in the fray for the post and as many as 1,158,308 votes were polled in the elections.
TDP nominee, Krishna Reddy, polled 362,119 votes while his MIM rival secured 340,585 votes. Nagender got only 226,975 votes.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) backed the TDP in the mayoral elections.
In the keenly fought elections for councilor seats also, MIM emerged as the single largest party with its tally of 36 seats out of 99 seats for which polls were held. TDP and Congress bagged 21 seats each and the BJP got 15.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had turned the MCH polls into a prestige issue, targeting the MIM as the main rival and warning the voters that development of the state capital would come to a standstill if MIM were elected.
Elsewhere in the state, TDP candidate M.S. Chakravarthy won the mayor’s post in Rajahmundry municipal corporation. TDP nominee K. Shankar Reddy wrested the chairman’s post in Tirupati municipality. In the bypoll for chairman’s post in Markapur municipality, TDP candidate Jakka Lakshmi Prakash Rao scored a victory. In all these places, the TDP nominees trounced their Congress rivals.
BJP candidate Baddam Subhash Reddy bagged chairman’s post in the newly formed Gaddiannaram municipality in a close fight with Congress. Congress managed to get only one municipality - Hindupur — with its nominee for chairman’s post Subhan Seth trouncing his TDP rival.
