After hectic political activity, the TDP-led NDA finally won the Deputy Mayor post in the Municipal Corporation of Tirupati (MCT).
The election for the post was necessitated by the resignation of the erstwhile Deputy Mayor Bhumana Abhinay Reddy after the change of guard in the State after the 2024 general elections, though the body remained intact.
The meeting to elect the Deputy Mayor was originally scheduled to be held at Sri Venkateswara University Senate Hall on Monday amid heavy police reinforcement, but it was deferred to Tuesday due to a lack of quorum.
The election meeting began on Tuesday, with Joint Collector Subham Bansal as the presiding officer, amid charges and counter-charges of poaching.
The TDP corporator R.C. Munikrishna was declared elected when 26 of the 47 voters, including corporators and ex-officio members who attended the meeting, raised their hands in his favour. YSRCP’s T. Bhaskar Reddy got the support of only 21 voters. YSRCP MP M. Gurumoorthy and JSP MLA Arani Srinivasulu attended as ex-officio members and cast their votes.
Over the last two days, high drama was witnessed when the YSRCP leaders made a beeline to the residences of some TDP leaders, with the suspicion that some of their party’s corporators had been held hostage, which, however, could not be proved. Meanwhile, the TDP-led alliance alleged that the YSRCP had held its corporators captive at a resort in Tamil Nadu to keep them safe from ‘poaching’.
It may be recalled here that most of the divisions were declared won by YSRCP candidates unanimously when the elections were held three years back, amid allegations that the ruling YSRCP had arm-twisted the candidates. Being at the receiving end, the YSRCP leaders, including the former MLA B. Karunakar Reddy, have now made similar charges against the alliance leaders.
