Giving a rude shock to the YCP, the TDP alliance has registered a clean sweep in the Visakha Municipal Corporation (GVMC) Standing Committee elections. All the ten seats were won by the alliance candidates. This development shocked the YCP leaders who have absolute majority in GVMC.
Out of total 98 corporators in GVMC, there are currently 97 corporators after one resigned. As CPM corporator Ganga Rao abstained from voting, only 96 people exercised their right to vote in the standing committee elections. Ten people contested on behalf of the alliance and ten from YCP.
In GVMC, YCP has 58 corporators, TDP, Jana Sena and BJP alliance has 37 corporators. CPI and CPM have one each. The notification for the standing committee election was released on 22nd of last month, after which six YCP corporators joined TDP and five joined Jana Sena.
The YCP’s strength fell to 47 on Tuesday, while the alliance’s strength increased to 49, as CPI corporator AJ Stalin announced support for the alliance’s candidates. As polling is on Wednesday, both parties have kept their corporators in separate camps since Tuesday.
However, only 43 people attended the YCP camp. The YCP leaders were taken aback when the four absentees reached the GVMC headquarters in special buses along with the alliance corporators when polling started on Wednesday. The YCP leaders thought that at least the remaining 43 votes would go to their candidates. But, after the counting of votes, the coalition candidates won with a huge majority.
The fact that only one of the YCP candidates got a maximum of 42 votes made the party leaders more distressed. The YCP leaders were angry that even the corporators in their camp had cross-voted for the alliance candidates.
While each candidate needs to get at least 49 votes to win the standing committee election, not even one of the YCP candidates secured necessary votes. During the counting of votes, the YCP candidates, who went as agents, put special codes on 14 ballot papers with pen and pencils.
