Women walked away with top positions of the municipal corporations and municipalities for which the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) finalised its candidates after winning majority seats in the elections conducted recently.
It is also the first time that Khammam and Warangal corporations will be ruled by women occupying both the Mayor and Deputy Mayor posts. The TRS has also ensured that the Muslim minority women got a major share of the top positions. Siddipet, Kothur and Jadcherla municipalities will also see women as chairpersons.
Former Rajya Sabha member Gundu Sudharani took oath as the Mayor of the Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation (GWMC) on Friday as the choice of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. Rizwana Shameem from the TRS will be the Deputy Mayor.
Observers
In Khammam, Punukollu Neeraja was elected as the Mayor and Fathima Johra the Deputy Mayor. The Chief Minister sent in observers for the election along with names finalised by the party for municipal corporations and municipalities that went to polls recently.
Ms. Sudharani was the Rajya Sabha member from the Telugu Desham Party (TDP) from 2010 but joined the TRS after the formation of Telangana. Her name was apparently chosen keeping in view her seniority as well as the social engineering concept to ensure support of those communities. She was elected from the 29th ward as the corporator.
Warangal District Additional Collector Sandhyarani presided over the swearing-in ceremony. Out of the total 66 corporators, nine took oath through virtual video conference as they were tested positive and in home isolation now.
The election of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor was held by show of hands. Apart from the elected corporators, TRS MP Pasunuri Dayakar and five MLAs Dasyam Vinay Bhaskar, Nannapuneni Narender, Challa Dharma Reddy, Aruri Ramesh and Thatikonda Rajaiah, also attended the meeting as ex-officio members.
The election of Mayor and Deputy Mayor went off smoothly with ministers A. Indrakaran Reddy, Gangula Kamalakar and Errabelli Dayakar informing the corporators about the choice of the top posts by the Chief Minister. The corporators were asked to support Ms. Sudharani and Ms. Shameem for unanimous election.
Out of the 66 corporators, TRS won in 48 divisions while BJP emerged successful on 10 divisions. Congress managed to win four while others won four.
In Siddipet, the party chose Kadavergu Manjula as the Chairperson while Jangiti Kanakaraju will be the Vice-Chairman. Edla Narsimha Goud is the Chairman of the Atchampet municipality while the Vice-Chairperson will be Poreddy Shailaja Vishnuvardhan Reddy.
Lavanya Yadav was elected as the Chairperson of Kothur municipality and Doli Ravinder will be the Vice-Chairman. Jadcherla municipality will be headed by Dorepally Lakshmi and Sarika Rammohan will be the Vice-Chairperson. Rachakonda Srinivas Goud is the Chairman of Nakirekal Municipality and Uma Rani will be the Vice-Chairperson.