Telangana State Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy hauled over the coals the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Narendra Modi and G Kishan Reddy at an election rally in the upscale and high-profile Jubilee Hills Assembly Constituency by-poll on Friday.
‘Mai Azhar Bhai ku Mantri Banaye to (G) Kishan Reddy Kapdey Phaadd Lera! Azharuddin ku Mantri Aisa Kaisa Banatey? Mai Kishan Reddy ku Poochraun Tera Baap ka Jagir hai Kya? Ye Mantri Mere hain. Chaar Crore Janata Mere ku Aashirwaad diye’ roared Revanth Reddy in the Deccani dialect of Urdu, keeping in view his audience in the Muslim concentrated locality of Erragadda. ‘I made Azhar a minister. Due to this, Kishan Reddy is agitated and tearing his clothes (implying that the union minister Kishan Reddy has gone mad)! He questioned why Azharuddin was made a minister. I am asking Kishan Reddy: Is it your father’s Jagir (estate)? These ministers are mine. Four crore people have blessed me, asserted the high-decibel Revanth Reddy, who is fighting with his back to the wall, to snatch the Jubilee Hills seat from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). The BRS has fielded the late legislator Gopinath’s widow, Maganti Sunitha, in anticipation of a sympathy wave.
Allah Mere ku Mauqa Diye. Azharuddin ku Mantri Banaye to Tera Baap ka Ghar Mein Kuch Gaya Kya? Revanth acknowledged that Allah had allowed him to make Azhar a minister. Lashing at Kishan Reddy again, Revanth Reddy sought to know if anything was lost from Kishan’s father’s house when Azhar was made a minister. ‘Vo Chhodo. Modi Gujarat mein Unka (Musalmanon ka) Zameen, Jayedaad Kheench Liya! Mai Kya Kara? Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ku Kyun Takleef hai, Bhai? Asking the audience to leave the Azhar issue aside, CM Revanth reminded the electorate that Narendra Modi has snatched away the lands and properties of Muslims. He asked them what he had done (like Modi). He sought to portray a clean image of himself.
May CM Revanth Reddy be reminded that just one month ago, government officials in his native village, Kodangal, had destroyed a Dargah and some graveyards in the name of road widening? Revanth Reddy’s best friend, Asaduddin Owaisi, MP, while campaigning during the 2023 Telangana Assembly polls, had dubbed Revanth Reddy RSS Tillu (the short guy from RSS). This time, in a political somersault, the All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has not fielded any candidate from Jubilee Hills, but it is supporting the Congress candidate Naveen Yadav, who had earlier fought an election as the AIMIM candidate!
Azharuddin’s inclusion in the Telangana ministry seems to have brought the BJP and BRS together, which tried all the tricks, including a memorandum to the Election Commission to stall Azhar’s inclusion in the cabinet. They have begun to polarize the polls on the issue of Azhar. Former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was kicked out from power by the Muslims, who saw him voting for anti-Muslim Bills on the side of the BJP in Parliament. He had also locked the Land Records Room of the Telangana Waqf Board, which made the Waqf Board lose cases in the Supreme Court due to a lack of land documents. More than one lakh crore worth of land was lost to the Telangana Government despite Chandrasekhar Rao’s assurances to Muslims before the formation of Telangana. Former deputy chief executive officer of Waqf Board and a confessed Peg Master of K Chandrasekhar Rao, Dr. Mohammed Safiullah, tried his best to get the land records room unlocked permanently, but was not successful. Safiullah had confessed that it was his work to make a liquor peg for the chief minister then: Vo Kaam Hai Mera!
It is significant to note that in the last Assembly polls, the BRS candidate Maganti Gopinath had won by a margin of 16,337 votes. Mohammed Azharuddin (Congress) was in second place with 64,212 votes, and the BJP candidate Lankala Deepak Reddy, who is contesting again, had lost by a huge margin of 54,683 votes. Mohd Rashed Farazuddin (Majlis) stood a poor fourth by bagging just 7,848 votes. The orange foot soldiers have fanned out all over and are allegedly taking promises in the name of an illusory and divisive figure that they will cast their votes to protect a particular religion.
The real game will be seen on the polling day, in which either the BRS or the BJP can be seen urging their cadre and the electorate to cast their votes for one ‘common candidate’ to defeat the Congress. If this happens, it could be anybody’s game. Otherwise, Congress seems to have a clear edge. The Muslims in Jubilee Hills have been struggling hard for a graveyard for the past two decades.
On the counting day, it will be known which party will be rightfully sent to the Legislative Assembly and which parties to the graveyard of politics!
