Hyderabad, April 5 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured the post of chairperson of Khanapur municipality in Telangana with the support of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

The election for the municipal chairperson of Khanapur in Nirmal district was held amid tight security on Sunday.

BJP candidate Ankham Mounika was elected as the chairperson after she received the backing of both BJP and BRS councillors.

Both the parties entered into an agreement for the post of chairperson and vice-chairperson. Under the agreement, BRS candidate Mohammad Shoaib was elected as the vice-chairperson.

Khanapur was one of the municipalities which had thrown a fractured verdict in the urban local body polls held in February.

In the 12-member municipal council, BRS and BJP had bagged four seats each while ruling Congress party had secured three seats. An independent was also elected as councillor.

With the support of the independent and an ex-officio vote, Congress’ strength rose to five. One of the BRS councillors had also declared support to Congress. Thus the Congress candidate had a total strength of six.

However, with the support of three councillors BRS, the BJP secured the post of chairperson and in return BJP helped BRS candidate get elected as vice-chairperson.

With this, the BJP has captured power in the second municipality in the state.

Reacting to BJP-BRS deal, Congress MLA from Khanapur, Vedma Bhojju termed it ‘love jihad’. He alleged that the two parties threatened the councillors to win the election.

BJP state president N. Ramchander Rao claimed that lotus bloomed in Khanapur despite misuse of power and undemocratic tactics adopted by Congress.

“This triumph is truly special because it came in the face of every undemocratic tactic employed by the Congress MLA to try and stop the BJP. Yet, our dedicated karyakartas stood firm and the lotus bloomed with pride,” the BJP leader posted on ‘X’.

Khanapur was one of the three municipalities where the election of chairpersons and vice-chairpersons could not be completed last month due to fractured mandate.

Main opposition BRS on Saturday bagged the posts of chairpersons and vice-chairpersons Ibrahimpatnam and Kyathanpally municipalities.

In Ibrahimpatnam municipality, BRS councillor T. Sudershan Reddy was elected as chairman, while Muthyala Shyamala Bhaskar of the BJP was chosen as vice-chairperson.

The BRS-CPI combine wrested control of the Kyathanpalli municipality in Mancherial district.

G. Sandhya Rani of BRS and M. Saritha of CPI won as chairperson and vice-chairperson of the civic body respectively.

The ruling Congress government had captured power in more than 90 out of 115 municipalities and six out of seven municipal corporations in February.

–IANS

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