BRS councillors in several municipalities and municipal corporations were up in arms against their own party chairpersons and mayors respectively, as the three-year period required to move no-confidence against them expired on January 26.
The councillors drafted the resolutions and met the Collectors or Additional Collectors but the latter apparently did not entertain them as an amendment Bill to the Municipal Act of 2019 was pending with the Governor. The Bill sought to enhance the minimum period for moving no-confidence against chairpersons and vice-chairpersons and Mayors and Deputy Mayors from three to four years after it was passed by the Assembly in September. The amendment Bill was among the seven Bills that the Governor had withheld from approval, resulting in a controversy with the government.
Instances of BRS councillors seeking replacement of chairpersons and mayors had come to notice in Sangareddy, Jangaon, Siddipet and Andole-Jogipet municipalities. The councillors were sore that the chairpersons and vice-chairpersons abused their power to demand commissions from contractors. Leaders who backed them shifted them to camps to ensure that they were not poached by rivals in an attempt to overcome the crisis.
The rival leaders tried to convince the councillors who were signatories to resolutions that the Governor will approve the Bill in a day or two, which will ensure that they will have to wait for one more year to move no-confidence. As the government lacked the will to put the resolutions to vote in council meetings, the Collectors and Additional Collectors were said to be directing the councillors to handover the resolutions in inward sections for receipt of communication in their respective offices.
Sources said there was no official word from Collectors whether they will put the resolutions to vote at all. They apparently had instructions from the government to go slow until the fate of the amendment Bill was decided.