Hyderabad: The Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) lead the way in ticket allotments to members from the Muslim community, numbering five each, while the BRS has just two and the BJP none. The Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) has named eight Muslim candidates and one Hindu candidate for the nine seats it is contesting.
Numbering anywhere between 15,000 and 25,000 in 49 of the 112 constituencies in Telangana — not including seven that the AIMIM considers its strongholds in Hyderabad — Muslim voters are being wooed by both BRS and Congress and could well make a difference for either party in what is currently being viewed as a potentially close contest between the two parties.
The BJP is expected to play spoilsport for both sides by taking away decent chunks of Hindu votes in the constituencies it is contesting from.
The BRS, which has never shied away from talking about its pro-minority credentials and schemes such as Shaadi Mubarak, or overseas scholarships to Muslims, has just two candidates from the community in the 119 seats of the Assembly it is contesting.
One is Bodhan MLA Md Shakeel, and the other is Ali Baqri from Bahadurpura. As part of its outreach to Muslims, BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao and home minister Md Mahmood Ali had addressed a meeting in the city and called on the community to vote for it.
In constituencies where Muslims have a significant presence, and can make a difference, BRS leaders, including party president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, have been making it a point to address public meetings in Urdu, at least for a few minutes.
On the other hand, the Congress, hoping the disenchantment with BRS rule and AIMIM’s reluctance to spread its footprint beyond Hyderabad city can attract Muslim voters into its fold, has five Muslim candidates in its list of 118 candidates in the fray for the November 30 elections.
It has fielded Muslims from Nizamabad Urban with its old warhorse and former minister Md Ali Shabbir leading the small pack from his community, along with former India cricket captain Md Azharuddin from Jubilee Hills, who, the Congress hopes, can rope in Muslim votes from Jubilee Hills. The other constituencies from where Congress is fielding Muslim candidates are Malakpet, Nampally and Charminar.
The Bahujan Samaj Party, led by former IPS officer R.S. Praveen Kumar, has more Muslim candidates than the BRS, fielding community members from Naryankhed, Amberpet, Sanathnagar, Nampally and Goshamahal.
The MIM on the other hand, which banks solidly on Muslim community votes, is contesting from nine constituencies, of which it holds seven — Malakpet, Nampally, Karwan, Chandrayangutta, Charminar, Yakutpura and Bahadurpura — in the outgoing Assembly.
It also has a Muslim candidate from Jubilee Hills, which the Congress claims is a ploy to split Muslim votes and take them away from Congress’ Azharuddin to enable a BRS win. It also has one Hindu candidate on its 2023 Assembly election roster in Belli Ravi Yadav, who is contesting from the Rajendranagar constituency.
