AIMIM, BJP locked in direct fight for Hyderabad MLC seat

Hyderabad, April 6 (IANS) Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are locked in a direct fight for the Hyderabad Local Authorities Constituency (LAC) seat of Telangana Legislative Council, scheduled to be held on April 23.

With both the ruling Congress and main opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) having decided to stay away, the contest will be between the AIMIM and the BJP.

AIMIM’s Mirza Riyaz Ul Hasan Effendi will take on N. Gautham Rao of the BJP in the first direct fight between the two in the Hyderabad LAC.

Going by the numbers, AIMIM is in a strong position to win the seat on its own. With Congress and BRS opting out, it is likely to be a cakewalk for the party headed by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi.

For the BJP, this will be more than a symbolic fight as it entered the fray to expose what it calls the secret understanding Congress and BRS have with the AIMIM.

The electorate for Hyderabad LAC consists of 110 voters, including corporators, MLAs, and MPs. The AIMIM has the majority with 49 votes, followed by the BRS with 25 and the BJP with 22. The Congress party has 14 votes.

Though the ruling Congress has not officially made any statement on backing the AMIM, it is likely to extend support to the friendly party.

The AIMIM was considered an ally of BRS when the latter was in power. After Congress came to power in November 2023, Owaisi’s party mended fences with it.

BJP is fully aware that it lacked numbers to win the election, but it chose to field its candidate to force a contest.

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay was quick to attack the three parties and called it Telangana’s ‘love triangle’.

He alleged that both BRS and Congress backed off from contesting the Hyderabad MLC elections to ensure AIMIM’s victory.

He said that Rahul Gandhi’s party is partnering with the same BRS and AIMIM he had falsely accused the BJP of aligning with during elections.

The Congress had reportedly assured AIMIM of its support for the Hyderabad LAC seat when the latter wanted one of the seats from the MLA quota.

Last month, five MLC vacancies from the MLA quota were filled unanimously. Three candidates of Congress and one each of its ally Communist Party of India (CPI) and main opposition BRS were elected unopposed.

The Congress left an MLC seat for its ally CPI to fulfill a commitment made at the time of the Assembly elections.

If elected, this will be the second term for Mirza Riyaz Ul Hasan Effendi as MLC. He was elected to the Council from the Hyderabad LAC seat in 2019, and his six-year term ended last month.

AIMIM currently has seven MLAs and one MLC. Its lone Mirza Rahmat Baig was elected in February 2023 with the support of the then ruling party BRS.

The BJP is upbeat after winning two out of three MLC seats from Graduate and Teachers’ constituencies in February. It defeated the Congress party in a direct contest in the Karimnagar-Medak-Nizamabad-Adilabad Graduates constituency.

BJP had fielded candidates in all three constituencies while Congress contested only one seat. The BRS stayed away from the contest.

These victories increased the BJP’s tally in the 40-member Legislative Council to three.

In March 2023, a candidate of the BJP-affiliated teachers’ union won the Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad teachers’ constituency.

However, the BJP, which has eight MLAs in the 119-member Assembly and also bagged eight out of 17 Lok Sabha seats last year, is facing internal problems over its choice of candidate for the Hyderabad LAC seat.

Controversial MLA Raja Singh found fault with the party’s decision to nominate Gautham Rao.

The MLA from Goshamahal constituency in Hyderabad remarked that someone who acts as a slave has been named the party candidate. He alleged that senior leaders of the party were ignored.

Gautham Rao earlier served as the president of the BJP’s Hyderabad Central district. He is considered close to Union Minister for Coal and State BJP president G. Kishan Reddy.

Raja Singh has been opposing the decisions of Kishan Reddy.

Last month, he alleged that certain BJP leaders had been holding secret meetings with Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy.

He questioned how the BJP could ever hope to form a government in Telangana with such secret meetings.

--IANS

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