Hyderabad:
As the time for Telangana Assembly election is coming closer, the electoral battle is seen at its high pitch with the main political parties in the fray – Congress party, AIMIM and the BJP – exchanging verbal duals. The Congress leaders are alleging that AIMIM is ‘hand-in-glove’ with the BJP, while the saffron party is insinuating that the Grand Old Party is in secret league with AIMIM. AIMIM leaders are also not lagging. They counter-allege that both BJP and Congress are colluding with each other against their party. As the war of words goes on, the people are wondering what more would be dished out by leaders of rival parties before the campaigning comes to an end on November 28.
A State BJP leader has threatened to run bulldozers to raze down “illegal buildings and shadikhanas” in the Old City.And a BJP Chief Minister (who is a defector from Congress) has claimed that Hyderabad would be named as “Bhagyanagar” within 30 minutes if the saffron party gains power in the State. Yet another BJP leader had warned of “surgical strikes” on the Old City.
On the other hand, the Congress leaders are also sharpening their rhetoric to say that they would “uproot” AIMIM from the Old City, lock, stock and barrel once their party forms the government in the State.
However,only time will say whether the Congress and BJP would be able to impact the electoral outcome in the seven constituencies of Hyderabad where the AIMIM has done a hat-trick by winning these seats in the last three assembly elections since 2009. These constituencies have a huge concentration of minority voters, ranging between 50 to 90 percent. Incidentally, other parties pick up mostly Muslim candidates in these constituencies to take on AIMIM.
In the 2018 assembly elections, the Congress-TDP alliance (Maha Kutami) fielded Muslim nominees in six out of seven constituencies. BRS and BJP had sponsored two Muslim candidates each. However, the contestants of both the national parties performed poorly. The vote-shares of these parties betrayed their real position vis-à-vis AIMIM. The BJP polled between 5.66 percent to 22.59 percent in these constituencies and four of its candidates had to forfeit their security deposits.The Congress secured between 4.55 percent to 34.98 percent of the votes and four of its nominees had to forfeit their deposits. The BRS put up a nominal fight in these constituencies with its vote-share ranging between 6.17 percent to 15.95 percent.
The vote-share of winning candidates of the AIMIM in 2018 was 41.99 percent in Nampally, 42.86 percent in Malakpet, 49.07 percent in Yakutpura, 52.88 percent in Karwan, 53.36 percent in Charminar, 67.95 percent in Chandrayangutta and 74.26 percent in Bahadurpura.
Charminar (which was first known as Pathergatti) constituency has elected AIMIM candidates right from 1962 till now. Yakutpura constituency has also elected AIMIM nominees since 1967, except once in 1994 when the splinter group– Majlis Bachao Tahreek (MBT)– bagged this seat. Similarly, Chandrayangutta has seen AIMIM cruise to victory in every election since the constituency was formed in 1978, except in 1994 when MBT won this seat. AIMIM has scored successive wins in 2009, 2014 and 2018 elections in Bahadurpura, Nampally and Malakpet constituencies after the fresh delimitation of the constituencies.
In Karwan constituency, AIMIM has won all successive elections since 1999. AIMIM had won in 1967 and 1972 in the Sitarambagh constituency before it was renamed as Karwan. In 1983, AIMIM had bagged this seat. The Congress won from Karwan in 1978 and the BJP, supported by TDP, bagged this seat in 1985, 1994 and 1999. AIMIM had scored its first victory in Asifnagar in 1983 and retained the seat in 1985 and 1989.
However, the AIMIM-MBT fight in 1994 and 1999 saw the Congress wrest this seat. In 2004, the TDP won this seat but AIMIM got it back in the by-polls soon after.
The AIMIM has not looked back ever since Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi won Pathergatti seat in 1962 by trouncing Congress nominee Mrs Masooma Begum, the then minister in DamodaramSanjivayya cabinet in the assembly polls. In 1967, the Congress had shifted the then Home Minister Mir Ahmed Ali Khan in Kasu Brahmananda Reddy cabinet to Charminar to take on Sultan SalahuddinOwaisibut he also tasted defeat at the hands of the AIMIM leader.
AIMIM has sent members to the Assembly in the 13 successive Assembly elections in the last six decades. In its chequered electoral history, AIMIM has fought the Congress, both the Communist parties, Jana Sangh (now BJP), Janata Party, Telugu Desam and several other parties successively and warded off their attacks.
Despite this history of AIMIM, political pundits say result is result; only time will say which way the winds would blow.