Splitting Hyderabad into four corporations might come in handy for the Congress government in Telangana during the GHMC elections, but there are a lot of challenges to decentralising Hyderabad's governance.
Published Oct 11, 2024 | 5:40 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 11, 2024 | 5:40 PM
Telangana Roads and Buildings Minster Komati Venkat Reddy announced that the GHMC would be split into four sperate corporations
Telangana Roads and Buildings Minister Komati Venkat Reddy made headlines recently after announcing that Hyderabad is set to have four mayors after the upcoming local body elections.
The minister acknowledged that Hyderabad was turning into a global city with international investors. He noted that splitting Hyderabad into four corporations was necessary as the city keeps growing towards the 1.5 crore population mark.
“4 mayors (for #Hyderabad) in the upcoming elections,”: #Telangana Roads and Buildings Minister Komati Venkatreddy announced.
Deeming it a necessity for the burgeoning city touching a population of 1.5 Crore, he announced splitting #Hyderabd into four corporations for the 2026… pic.twitter.com/HMmVY7aGHE
— South First (@TheSouthfirst) October 4, 2024
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) was established in 2007, combining 12 municipalities and eight gram panchayats. In 2019, the GHMC was organised into six zones: North, West, East, South, Northeast, and Central. These zones consisted of 30 circles.
With jurisdiction stretching across 900 square kilometres, it functions in four districts, Hyderabad, Medchal, Rangareddy, and Sangareddy. It elects 150 corporators every term, with the BRS now in power.
In the 2016 GHMC elections, the first after the 2014 bifurcation, erstwhile TRS posted a landslide victory, securing 99 seats. In its first term, the AIMIM emerged as the second-largest party with 44 seats, with the BJP, INC, and TDP securing four, three, and one seats, respectively.
However, in the second election in 2020, the TRS took a massive hit, securing 56 seats, 43 less than their 2016 performance. The BJP grew exponentially in this election, winning 44 seats, amassing 48 from the previous four.
Meanwhile, the AIMIM maintained its 44 seats, and the INC maintained its two. However, the TDP couldn’t secure a single seat this time.
With Hyderabad already comprising three cities, Hyderabad, Secunderabad, and Cyberabad, the Congress has ardently pushed for establishing a fourth city under its tenure.
Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy holds big plans for this upcoming city at Mucherla, 50 kilometres South of Hyderabad. The city is set to become a net-zero carbon city, becoming the hub for the AI and pharma industries.
To facilitate this fourth city, the government initiated the merger of 51 gram panchayats into the GHMC, to bring them under the purview of one municipal corporation post the December 2025 GHMC polls. Hence, Komati Venkat Reddy’s announcement, comes as a shocker to many, with a wide range of political and administrative implications.
In the 2020 GHMC polls, the BJP emerged as a dark horse, significantly cutting into TRS’s share of seats. BJP winning big in the city and not the state is a nascent pattern in other cities like Bengaluru and Mumbai.
Former Telangana BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar has already expressed confidence that the saffron party will win bigger than 2020 and have a BJP mayor in 2025.
“The Congress barely has any corporators, splitting the GHMC in the name of decentralisation is a mere farce to focus heavily on the polls,” Natcharaju Venkata Subhash, a BJP spokesperson, said. Noting that GHMC already has zonal commissioners, he deemed the proposed split unnecessary.
“The BJP will be unaffected by this split, we have a solid ground to stand on. It’s the Congress that needs to make sure it gets the votes,” he added, expressing confidence in the party’s performance.
BRS leader Sravan Dasoju echoed Subhash’s views. “This is Revanth Reddy’s ploy to ensure that no strong leaders emerge out of these elections. When you have a smaller corporation, it means you have a smaller budget, increasing your dependence on the state,” he told South First.
“No other major city has such a system. It is an inappropriate move that allows them to manipulate certain pockets of voters,” he opined.
Terming Revanth Reddy’s governance “immature,” he continued: “With the HYDRAA and Musi demolitions, this circus of splitting the GHMC will not benefit the Congress. The BRS will strike back.”
Recently, BRS working president KT Rama Rao called on the people to oust the Congress in the upcoming local body elections to ‘teach them a lesson.’ He capitalised on the discontent with the Congress regime’s demolition drive, making a case for BRS’s revival.
The TDP seems to be eyeing the upcoming GHMC elections to revive itself following its political absence of over five years in Telangana.
The party won two seats in the 2018 Telangana elections: Mecha Nageswara Rao in Aswaraopeta and Sandra Venkata Veeraiah in Sathupalli. However, both members soon jumped ship to the BRS in 2021, leaving the yellow party with no MLAs in the state.
In the subsequent 2020 GHMC elections, TDP was absent. Similarly, it refrained from contesting in Telangana in the 2023 polls as it was facing a crisis on its home turf, Andhra Pradesh following N Chandrababu Naidu’s arrest in the skill development scam.
However, following TDP’s victory in Andhra Pradesh, Naidu has shown signs of refocusing on Hyderabad, the development of which many consider his crowning achievement. At a meeting at the NTR Trust Bhavan, the party’s local headquarters, he reportedly strategised for the upcoming local body elections.
With former BRS Maheshwaram MLA Teegala Krishna Reddy announcing that he will join the TDP to “reclaim its past glory,” Naidu’s efforts seem to be picking momentum.
However, given its long absence in the state, it remains to be seen whether the TDP is still relevant in Hyderabad’s sensibilities. Interestingly, he was the last mayor of the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation before its transformation into the GHMC.
#Telangana: Former #Maheshwaram MLA Teegala Krishna Reddy set to return to @JaiTDP soon to “bring back its glory.”
“Chandrababu Naidu was crucial to Hyderabad’s development, I can attest to that as the then mayor. I am happy he became the Chief Minister of #AndhraPradesh,” the… pic.twitter.com/ciuylzILfu
— South First (@TheSouthfirst) October 7, 2024
Meanwhile, the AIMIM released a statement. “The proposal by the Telangana government to split GHMC into four corporations might seem like an attempt to improve governance, but this move could bring more harm than good to the city’s development,” it read.
It noted fragmented urban development as a primary issue that’ll arise from the split, resulting in disjointed development plans. The party also speculated that the split would lead to an imbalance in resource allocation, wherein tax revenues of a region will decide their access to basic amenities.
Furthermore, it stated that the split would also slow down key development projects like the metro expansion, and opined that the Old City area would be neglected in general.
The AIMIM, also noted that the move could lead to inefficient administration and make room for political manipulation, making a case for the split to not occur.
“The GHMC split is on the cards. However it’s still a work in progress,” TPCC General Secretary Kota Neelima said.
She noted that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) undertook a similar split in 2012 before reuniting in 2022. “One of the major challenges before us is the revenue distribution model,” she explained.
Responding to allegations of splitting GHMC for political gains, she said: “Dismissing this attempt at decentralising governance as political is a disservice.”
“India has three tiers of governance: the local bodies, states, and the Union. Saying that this split shouldn’t happen is against the spirit of democracy,” she explained.
“The voters’ right to vote is equivalent to their right to express themselves,” she continued.
Adding that the degree of a democracy’s evolution is evident through its degree of decentralisation, she expressed hope for a comprehensive policy soon.
(Edited by Ananya Rao)
