With too many aspirants in the race for the deputy mayor post in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), Pradesh Congress Committee president Botsa Satyanarayana held a meeting with the ministers, MLAs and all the Congress corporators at Gandhi Bhavan on Thursday to finalise one name.

All the participants of the meeting,  including home minister P Sabita Indra Reddy, Danam Nagender and other corporators like former mayor Banda Karthika Reddy said they would abide by the party's decision and support the candidate for deputy mayor. But it appears that the party has decided to give the deputy mayor post to a corporator belonging to a backward class as the Congress mayor till recently was an upper caste woman.

The election of mayor and deputy mayor, which was supposed to be held on December 30, was postponed to January 3 at the request of Members of Parliament, who are ex-officio members of the municipal corporation, as they were preoccupied with the parliamentary proceedings. The main aspirant is Hafeezpet corporator V Jagadishwar Goud, whose candidature is reportedly being supported by Greater Hyderabad Congress Committee chief and minister Danam Nagender. The other candidates in the fray are Kaleru Venkatesh, who is presently Congress floor leader in the corporation and Sultan Bazaar corporator G Shankar Yadav, who is said to be backed by Secunderabad MP Anjan Kumar Yadav. Interestingly, all the candidates belong to the backward classes.

Some corporators and leaders are demanding that deputy mayor should be given to a scheduled caste candidate. Ziaguda corporator A Krishna is aspiring for the post with the help of Nandi Yellaiah, Rajya Sabha member. The other candidates in the fray include Gunfoundry corporator and brother of Mukesh Goud, M Madhu Goud, Habsiguda corporator Harivardhan Reddy, Barkatpura corporator (associate member of Congress) and standing committee member Diddi Rambabu and Boundhanagar corporator Adam Uma Devi. But this time, the party may not give chance to a woman candidate for deputy mayor post as former mayor Karthika held the post for two years.

In Thursday's meeting, PCC president and other corporators felicitated former mayor Karthika Reddy who reportedly told the PCC president that she would do any assignment given to her for the interest of the party. "The deputy mayor candidate will be finalised after consulting chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, MLAs and ministers and the name would be officially announced only on January 3, a few hours before the election," a source in the party said.