The All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) President and Hyderabad Lok Sabha member Asaduddin Owaisi is a true Hyderabadi! The opposition parties have been accusing Majlis of being the ‘B’ team of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The chorus has become louder after the Bihar election results. Responding to such constant accusation, the learned Barrister Owaisi shot back in his inimitable Hyderabadi style: ‘Gharib ki Joru, Sab ki Bhabhi.’ The proverb in Hyderabadi or Deccani dialect means that a poor man’s wife is everybody’s sister-in-law. It implies that a poor man’s wife is accused by all the people about something or the other. Asad Owaisi likened the sister-in-law’s situation to Majlis being accused by all that it is the ‘B’ team of the BJP. He criticized the BJP-led central government for not providing any relief after the floods in Hyderabad. He pointed out that there have been no funds from the Centre for Urban Renewal too.
Asaduddin Owaisi has categorically ruled out that there will be no alliance with the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls to be held on 1st December 2020. However, the articulate barrister was mum about the possibility of any post-poll alliance with the friendly-TRS party. Majlis leaders and the cadres have been working hard almost round the clock since March 2020 after the lockdown due to Covid-19. The younger Owaisi – Akbaruddin has spent Rs 11.5 Crore from his pocket to provide relief to the people (Muslims and Hindus and others) during the lockdown and the recent floods. Majlis is expected to reap benefits for its hard work and relief measures. However, some arrogant and corrupt corporators, who harass poor people when they are constructing houses by demanding money from them will get the boot this time. Majlis is creating a social engineering model as it has given tickets to all communities like the last time. The following non-Muslim candidates from Majlis are expected to win handsomely: Jadala Ravindra from Jambagh ward, Swamy Yadav from Karwan ward apart from sitting corporators Sunnam Raj Mohan from Purana Pul ward and Tara Bai Moti Lal Nayak from Falaknuma ward. The Hindu Backward Classes (BCs), Scheduled Castes (SC), and Scheduled Tribes (ST) candidates with winning chances have been fielded by Majlis. The main opposition to Majlis in many wards of the old city is the BJP. The BJP is trying to communalize the GHMC polls as usual. However, the BJP is a divided house as many aspirants who did not get the tickets have ransacked and destroyed BJP party offices. Some of them have turned rebels. Union Minister of State for Home Kishen Reddy and Telangana State BJP president Badi Sanjay are at loggerheads and do not see eye to eye with each other. Their supporters are clashing openly. This may cost the BJP some seats. The BJP could not find winning candidates. So, it went on a poaching spree and was successful in getting the turncoats from the TRS and the Congress into their fold. The BJP central leadership is aiming to gain a strong foothold in Telangana. As such, central BJP leader Bhupendra Yadav, who successfully managed the party campaign in Bihar has been made in-charge of the BJP in GHMC polls.
The TRS has fielded candidates in all the 150 wards including the Majlis strongholds. The Municipal Administration Minister and ‘Crown Prince’ (son) of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) has expressed his resolve to snatch at least 10 wards from the Majlis this time. He declared that a woman candidate from the TRS will be the next Mayor of Greater Hyderabad. KCR is considered the ‘Gullu Dada’ of politics – a comic character in Hyderabadi films who promises but never delivers! ‘Mai Deataun Na! (I will give!) will be his regular phrase but he never keeps his promises. The TRS has tough competition from the BJP and Majlis. Congress will be among the also-rans. Congressmen are fleeing to other parties like the ‘lovers’ fleeing homes to get married. The people are annoyed that KCR did not keep his promise of laying the foundation stones in the ‘first or second week of October 2020’for the destroyed two mosques and a temple in the Telangana Secretariat. The excuses of floods in Hyderabad and now the code of conduct for the polls will not cut ice with the voters. Many people did not get the promised flood relief of Rs.10, 000/-. This is bound to hurt the chances of the TRS.
After the poll results are declared KCR, KTR and the TRS will learn:
‘Hyderabadion ku Hawla Nai Samajh Na’ – Do not think of Hyderabadis as fools!
The BJP will realize that they cannot communalize and divide the peaceful Hindus – Muslims of Hyderabad, who live like brothers and protect the Ganga – Jamuni Tehzeeb – pluralistic culture of our great country.
