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The GHMC(Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation) elections are not a high profile election. It is simply electing the corporators for the wards. The reason this election got the attention it enjoys as of now is due to vociferous campaigning by the BJP with the top brass such as Amit Shah, JP Nadda, and Yogi Adityanath who came to campaign for the BJP contestants.
This election was panning out to be a very interesting one, with the local BJP cadre looking to make inroads in the heart of the Deccan. Due to the floods that ravaged the city of Hyderabad this year, there was a growing distrust among people towards TRS and AIMIM as the leaders of both parties seemingly came up short when the public needed them the most. TRS then went on to give a 10,000Rs flood relief amount to citizens who were affected by the floods, but the paltry amount did little to quell the dissatisfaction the public still felt.
On the other hand, AIMIM was facing a huge backlash from their main voter base, the Sunni and Shia Muslims of the old city. A little context here, the wards for GHMC elections before were such that in the ward of dabeerpura, the Shia Muslims held a majority. But while reorganizing the wards, gerrymandering took place which divided the consolidated vote base of the Shias in dabeerpura into small pieces in the surrounding wards. This was a calculated move by the AIMIM to cut the Shia vote so that no independent candidate with popular support from Shias would be able to draw the consolidated Shia vote. This is a small example of what AIMIM does at the ground level.
Coming back, regardless of the division of vote, Shia and Sunni alike were angry at AIMIM for their lack of action and help towards the public during and after the floods. This lead to an uncertainty of whether AIMIM would be able to retain all the 44 seats they had won in the last GHMC election or they would lose seats.
Enter BJP. In the 2 GHMC elections held so far (in 2009 and 2016 respectively), BJP won a mere 4 seats. Despite what it looked like, the BJP was slowly starting to take root in the city of the nawabs, with attractive manifestos and a little toned down rhetoric with MLA Raja Singh being the main exception.
With BJP leaders coming to Hyderabad, going on and on about Owaisi being the new Jinnah (said by Tejaswi Surya), conducting a surgical strike on the old city, to saying that Pakistanis and Rohingyas inhabit the Muslim majority old city, BJP successfully created an atmosphere of u
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Paul TenHaken (Incumbent, Announced)
Taneeza Islam (Announced)
David Zokaites (Announced)
Greg Jamison (Rumored Candidate)
Pat Starr (Rumored Candidate)
City Council - South East District
Currently held by Rick Kiley, who is termed out.
David Barranco (Announced)
City Council - Central District
Curt Soehl (Incumbent, Announced)
City Council - At-Large "A"
Janet Brekke (Incumbent. No re-election announcement yet. Note that Brekke could also run for South East District or At-Large "B" if she feels like those seats would be an easier path to re-election)
Bobbi Andera (Announced)
Sarah Cole (Announced).
City Council - At-Large "B"
Currently held by Christine Erickson, who is termed out.
Rich Merkouris (Announced)
Zach Deboer (Rumored Candidate)
Emmett Reistoffer (Rumored Candidate)
Theresa Stehly (Rumored Candidate. She could run for Central District too)
Other Rumored City Council Candidates:
Mike Zitterich
*Taneeza Islam said she is actively recruiting down-ballot candidates, but no specific names have surfaced yet.
