Owaisi's troopers won five seats comfortably but Nampally and Yakutpura were no cakewalk for the 96-year-old political outfit.
Published Dec 06, 2023 | 10:00 AM ⚊ Updated Dec 07, 2023 | 5:52 PM
AIMIM's Darussalam office in Hyderabad's Nampally on Sunday, 3 December. (Ajay Tomar/South First)
Since 6.30 am on Sunday, 3 December, hundreds of AIMIM supporters started gathering at the party’s Darussalam office in Hyderabad’s Nampally.
Nervousness was palpable on their faces as the counting of votes following the Telangana elections began. They were worried about the unexpectedly tight contest in Nampally and Yakutpura — among their usual stronghold seats. They were all hooked to their mobile sets.
Just past noon, trends showed that Floor Leader Akbaruddin Owaisi was as comfortable in Chandrayangutta as were other AIMIM candidates in Malakpet, Bahadurpura and Charminar. They were ahead of all their rivals.
But in two constituencies — Nampally and Yakutpura — the Majlis’s contestants were facing a levelled contest.
In Yakutpura, Jaffar Hussain was initially trailing against the BJP’s N Veerender Yadav after counting of a few rounds. But surviving Yadav’s scare, he entered a see-saw clash with MBT’s Amjed Ullah Khan, who at the end of the day lost just by a few hundred votes.
AIMIM Assembly seats
Simultaneously, Congress’s Feroze Khan was proving to be a tough nut to crack for the AIMIM’s debutant Mohammed Majid Hussain in Nampally.
In Karwan constituency, too, initially, sitting MLA Kausar Mohiuddin was trailing BJP’s Amar Singh. But it could be seen only as a matter of time before the former strode well past his competitor.
The counting exercise would continue to cause anxiety for the cadres for whom it was not over till it was over.
“We will win all the seven seats. BJP is leading at the moment in Yakutpura because the Muslim votes have been divided between Amjed Ullah and Majid Hussain,” opined a tense Syed Nazeer Ali (65), a resident of Nampally, sitting outside the party’s office.
Ultimately, the AIMIM won its Old City’s citadel, but not without hiccups.
The AIMIM retained all the seven assembly seats in its “Old Hyderabad” bastion — Charminar, Yakutpura, Chandrayangutta, Malakpet, Karwan, Bahadurpura and Nampally.
Of these, it reclaimed five seats with a vote margin of 20,000 or more. Party President Asaduddin Owaisi’s younger brother Akbaruddin won the Chandrayangutta seat for the sixth time, pipping BRS’ Sitha Ram Reddy by a humongous margin of 81,660 votes. It was the third-highest majority in these elections after BRS legislators KP Vivekananda and T Harish Rao.
First-time MIM candidate in Bahadurpura, Mohammed Mubeen, kept up the morale by defeating BRS’ Mir Inayath Baqri by a margin of 67,025 votes.
Riding atop his car, the AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi greeting the supports after victory on all the seven seats on 3 December.(Supplied)
Next in terms of victory margins was Kausar Moinuddin’s. The party’s Karwan candidate — a two-time legislator — won a third term, defeating Amar Singh of the BJP by 41,986 votes.
Next comes Malakpet, where sitting MLA Ahmed Bin Balala edged out Shaik Akbar of the Congress by 26,106 votes.
In Charminar, another first-timer, Mir Zulfiqar Ali, brimmed BJP’s Megha Agarwal by a margin of 22,853 votes — the lowest among all five big victories of AIMIM legislators in the 2023 Telangana Assembly elections.
E Venkatesu, a professor in political science at the University of Hyderabad, told South First said he believed that, as anticipated, the AIMIM retained its position primarily due to its sectarian politics.
“It is a known fact that the AIMIM has got very strong religious support from the Muslim community residing in the Old City. It is completely fine in the context of liberal democratic/identity politics,” he said.
Venkatesu pointed out the AIMIM’s amicable relations with the outgoing BRS government. “The communal harmony has not been disturbed since 2014 due to which the law and order has remained intact. AIMIM has also been delivering certain goods and services to its constituency of voters, and it is seen as the voice of Muslims being the sole party that exists for Muslims at the national level,” the professor said.
Scratch the surface, and one finds some chinks in the AIMIM armour. It polled over 5.14 lakh votes in 2018, but this time, it secured less — just over 5.08 lakh votes.
The AIMIM supporters gathering outisde it’s office as the counting proceeded. (Ajay Tomar/South First)
A significant reason is the low turnout in Yakutpura and Nampally Assembly seats, where the party won by narrow margins.
In Yakutpura, AIMIM’s Jaffer Hussain (former Nampally MLA) won by merely 878 votes against MBT’s Amjed Ullah Khan, whereas in Nampally Majid Hussain came on top against Congress’ two-time MLA contestant Feroze Khan by 2,037 votes.
Syed Najiullah, a professor of public administration at (Maulana Azad National Urdu University), said this was due to strong Opposition candidates in the two constituencies.
“Contestants who stand against the AIMIM for the first time are unable to contest again as they drain out their resources, including finances and poll management. But Feroze Khan contested again, and Amjed Ullah, along with resources, carries his father’s legacy and is also seen as a social worker, so that proved to be an advantage for him,” he told South First.
Venkatesu, who is also a member of CSDS Lokniti, observed that the interest of the voters in these two constituencies was towards the Opposition candidates as well because of their individual capacities to mobilise.
“It was Feroze Khan’s stature rather than being a candidate of Congress. Non-AIMIM candidates have never won in areas like Nampally. It was not possible even for BRS when the Telangana sentiment was at its peak in 2014 and 2018. Also, both of these candidates were Muslims, so that also helped.”
Hundreds of the AIMIM supporters celebrating as the party retained all seven seats. (Ajay Tomar/South First)
He added: “Asaduddin projected Congress as a party grabbing the vote bank of Muslims and depriving it of its identity. He vehemently attacked the party, so voters considered AIMIM as the sole identity to represent Muslim interests. Nampally is a perfect example of Muslims not caring for Congress.”
Najiullah opined that Congress accusing the AIMIM as the B-team of the BJP might have played against the Majlis.
“This could have possibly caused apprehension among the Muslim community due to which they voted for other candidates in these areas. As the MIM also supports the BRS indirectly and split votes for it like it tried to do in Jubilee Hills, so that might have also caused a dent to their image among the supporters,” he said.
The AIMIM had fielded Mohammed Rashed Farazuddin against Congress’ candidate and former Indian men’s cricket team captain Mohmmed Azharuddin. While Azharuddin polled 64,212 votes and lost to BRS’ Maganti Gopinath (80,549 votes), Farazuddin stood fourth with 7,848 votes.
It should be noted that of the seven AIMIM seats, the BJP candidates came second in two — Charminar and Karwan. In the rest, barring Nampally and Bahadurpura, the right-wing party finished third behind AIMIM and BRS.
Among the BJP candidates in these constituencies, Amar Singh in Karwan polled the highest number of votes —41,402 votes.
Venkatesu saw the uplifting nature of the BJP’s performance in the seven seats due to the Congress party’s sheer negligence and allocating tickets to the weakest OBC candidates at the last minute ahead of the election.
“Most of the backward class population is in the rural areas of Telangana and peripheral areas of Hyderabad. Congress candidates in these areas did not even have much time to campaign,” he said.
The AIMIM supporters expressing confidence as the counting was going on. (Ajay Tomar/South First)
Noting that in the AIMIM-dominated areas, the BJP is seen as a majoritarian party, he claimed that the BJP was attempting to attract the Hindu vote bank in its favour.
“This was a strategy to stop those votes going to Congress. PM Modi also vehemently campaigned in Hyderabad, holding massive road shows. This means that the BJP leadership was focused. Earlier, they even attempted to take its popularity in the rural spaces, but since Bandi Sanjay was removed from the state party president’s post, it did not work,” Venkatesu explained.
In at least four of the constituencies where the AIMIM won, the turnout was either 50 percent or much less, suggesting the non-AIMIM voters were already predicting the AIMIM’s victory.
However, Venkatesu sees this as a failure of the BJP’s poll management. “If the BJP considered itself as a primary Opposition in those areas, then it is their responsibility to mobilise people and ask them to turn up at polling stations in large numbers.”
On the day of the poll result, South First spoke to several AIMIM supporters at the party’s office in Darussalam.
People across the age groups observed that the party should focus more on education and health in the coming five years.
The AIMIM supporters gathered outside the office and hooked to their phones on 3 December, the counting day. (Ajay Tomar/South First)
“The scholarship funds for two years have not been disbursed even now. It needs to be allocated immediately for the school and college students,” Sheikha Khalid, a Goshamahal resident, told South First.
Expressing delight that Primary Health Units have been opened through AIMIM’s initiatives, he claimed, “The availability of medicine is a regular problem. They should never be scarce. Sometimes, doctors also casually treat patients instead of paying proper attention.”
Abdul Raheem (name changed to protect his identity), a resident of Golconda, wants the party to open more hospitals like the 500-bed Princess Esra Hospital.
“The treatment at Esra Hospital is done at subsidised rates. Similarly, if such hospitals are opened in other areas, it will help people a lot,” he said.
The AIMIM is also plagued by complaints of encroachments and land grabbing in its constituencies. A resident, who initially hesitated to speak, charges, “There is a lot of pending work to be done, but if we speak against them (AIMIM) in public, we fear our lands will be taken.”
Citing the Sachar Committee’s 2006 report, Venkatesu noted that the Muslim community is one of the most backward communities in India deprived of basic development indicators such as health, education and hygiene.
The AIMIM supporters in celebration mode after the party reclaims all the seats. (Ajay Tomar/South First)
Asked whether the AIMIM is the only option for several even though they might be fed up of it, he opined, “The AIMIM has constantly maintained its stature as a torch bearer of the Muslim identity. Even though it is being run by one family, voters still feel some sort of relief as there is a national leader who represents them. There many other invisible benefits because of the party existence that the voters might be availing ”
He says, “Has the AIMIM ever done a ground survey to know if people vote for it because of its identity politics or for fulfilling their basic needs? This is a serious question that one must pose to them.”
Najiullah recollected the 1994 erstwhile Andhra Pradesh elections where the MBT won two seats — Mumtaz Ahmed Khan in Yakutpura and Mohammed Amanullah Khan in Chandrayangutta. Asaduddin Owaisi was the AIMIM legislator then who won from Charminar.
“This shows the AIMIM is not invincible. Whenever there is a strong candidate, people are ready to give a chance to them as well,” he said.
