Having lost the 2024 Assembly elections, the YSRCP has since then been one disappointment after another. Today was the latest punch, with the party losing the mayor’s seat in Visakhapatnam, which had been earlier slated to be the executive capital in the three-capital plan of the erstwhile government. In a major setback, the NDA alliance comfortably pushed through a no-confidence motion against the YSRCP in a one-sided voting, again harming the ruling party.
The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) with 97 members had previously been dominated by the YSRCP, whose mayor for the last four years was Gollagani Hari Venkata Kumari. But as she was nearing the end of her term, the opposition parties realized their chance and moved a no-confidence motion, leading to feverish political activity in the city.
Opposition parties exerted efforts in fortifying themselves by shifting their corporators to other camps around the nation and even outside it so that any possible defection could be prevented. On top of that, a few YSRCP corporators also switched allegiance to opposition parties, that is, TDP and Janasena, which weighed in heavily for the alliance. The opposition was seen to win decisively in today’s GVMC Council meeting, with 72 corporators voting for the motion and guaranteeing a smooth victory. As expected, the YSRCP abstained from the voting process.
This victory is another big win for the opposition, who have successfully cleared no-confidence motions from other civic bodies as well. The new mayor of Visakhapatnam will however serve only for eight more months since fresh elections are impending soon. Though some of the opposition leaders were initially hesitant to go ahead with the motion, they finally thought that winning control of the mayor’s seat would be a major political coup in Visakhapatnam.
With this win, the opposition alliance has tightened its grip on the city even further, and political polarities in Visakhapatnam will change dramatically over the next few months.