It won 52 seats, while the Telugu Desam Party ( TDP) bounced back with 45 seats in the 150- member civic body.

The elections were held on November 23.

No party got an absolute majority in the GHMC, which went to polls for the first time after its formation in April 2007 following the merger of 11 municipalities and several gram panchayats into the erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad ( MCH).

The Congress emerged as the single largest party in the GHMC. But the results were a setback as the party had won two Lok Sabha seats and 14 out of 24 assembly seats in the Greater Hyderabad limits.

In the GHMC elections, the Congress put up candidates in all 150 divisions, whereas the TDP contested in 141 seats.

The Majlis- e- Ittehadul Muslimeen ( MIM) retained its hold on Hyderabad, especially in the Muslim- dominated Old City, by winning 43 of the 70 seats it contested. The Congress and the TDP need to forge an alliance with the MIM if they want to capture the mayor and deputy mayor posts, elections for which are scheduled for December 4.

“ We are yet to decide which party we will associate with,” MIM Lok Sabha member Asaduddin Owaisi said.

The BJP, which had held the deputy mayor’s post in the last MCH, had to contend with just five seats. Voters rejected actor- turned- politician Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party, the Lok Satta headed by former IAS officer N. Jayaprakash Narayan and the Left parties.