Telangana Government's Reorganization of GHMC Likely to Benefit AIMIM

Hyderabad:The newly reorganised Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) will likely help the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) in increasing its hold and number of wards in the next election. The AIMIM had earlier opposed the GHMC’s expansion after the Telangana government increased its wards from 150 to 300 as the civic body’s area was increased from 625 square kilometres to 2,053 sq km. Had the GHMC remained as it is, the expansion of its wards to 300 would have put the AIMIM at a disadvantage in its main stronghold in the Old City and surrounding areas. The Asaduddin Owaisi-led party had won 44 seats in the last two GHMC elections that were held in 2015 and 2020. However, the Telangana government on February 11 reorganised the civic body into the Greater Hyderabad, Malkajgiri and Cyberabad corporations. Under the newly reorganised limits, Shamshabad,Rajendranagar, Golconda,Charminarand Khairatabad zones now comprise the GHMC. This will majorly benefit the AIMIM, as not only does it include all of its strongholds, but it also includes Rajendranagar, where the party has a decent vote share due to the presence of sizeable Muslim voters. The AIMIM, in the past, has contested the Rajendranagar seat during Assembly elections for the same reason. According to a GHMC source, the new limits will have 123 wards that were under it before its reorganisation. “These will be reorganised into 150 wards for the new GHMC limits. Seats in the Old City area that the AIMIM has been winning will also be reorganised and more will be added. The present 44 or 45 seats in the Old City area will go up to 70,” added the source. However, when asked, the GHMC Commissioner said that as of now, there is no delimitation “on the cards,” adding that there are six months for the government to hold the next elections according to the rules. The GHMC source quoted earlier said that delimitation will be done only later, closer to the elections. A senior AIMIM functionary, who did not want to be named, toldSiasat.comthat with the new GHMC limits, the party will stand to increase its total number of seats to well over 50. “As per our knowledge, the number of seats where Muslim voters will be in the majority will be about 70, so there will be triangular contests in the rest of the 80 wards between the Congress, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In the wards under our areas, it will be a straight fight with the BJP, which will also win in some of the areas that have more Hindu voters,” he added. Ending weeks of speculation, the Telangana government finally passed orders to trifurcate the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). Instead of one large body, the city now has the GHMC, Malkajgiri Municipal Corporation (MMC) and the Cyberabad Municipal Corporation (CMC). The development came just a day after the Greater Hyderabad Council’s term ended on February 10. In two separate orders dated February 11, the Telangana government reorganised the GHMC into the three bodies – GHMC, CMC and MMC – and also passed orders appointing new commissioners to the two newly created corporations. While RV Karnan will continue in his current post as GHMC Commissioner, GHMC Additional Commissioners G Srijana and T Vinay Krishna Reddy have been posted as the new Cyberabad and Malkajgiri Municipal Commissioners.