Hyderabad: Ending suspense over its decision, the All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has decided to contest in eight seats out of the total 119 in the upcoming Telangana elections. Though the party had filed 21 nominations, 13 would be withdrawn, said senior party leaders.
The decision is part of its tactical understanding with caretaker chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi.
An AIMIM functionary who did not wish to be named said the party had decided not to contest outside Hyderabad so that the TRS could secure Muslim votes. “Our leader Asaduddin Owaisi has more public meetings planned in the coming days outside Hyderabad, where he will speak positively about KCR (as Rao is known) and the work his government has done. If we put up more candidates, it will split Muslim votes,” he told Mint.
‘In the 2014 elections, the AIMIM had contested 20 out of the total 119 seats. In that, apart from winning its seven seats again, the party managed to get an impressive 26% of the vote share in those assembly constituencies’.
The move is expected to benefit the TRS, as Owaisi praising Rao and his government, which was dissolved 6 September, is tantamount to him asking Muslims to vote for the party. Political observers have been closely watching to see whether the AIMIM will put up candidates outside Hyderabad, given that it has a considerable vote share in some seats and can affect the outcome of the elections.
With this move, the Hyderabad Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM will contest one other seat -- the Rajendranagar assembly constituency -- other than the seven in Hyderabad, which the party has been winning since 2009. The seven seats considered to be the AIMIM’s bastion are Charminar, Yakutpura, Chandrayangutta, Karwan, Nampally, Bahadurpura and Malakpet.
It surprised political analysts in 2014 when two AIMIM candidates came second and third in the Jubilee Hills and Rajendranagar constituencies, which were both won by the Telugu Desam Party.
The AIMIM also raised eyebrows with its candidate coming second in the Nizamabad (urban) seat, securing 31,648 votes (23.53%) against the TRS’ winner B. Ganesh, who bagged 40,947 votes, showing that its influence is growing beyond Hyderabad. With the party contesting only eight seats, it is yet to be seen how the 12.5% Muslim electorate votes.
“Owaisi has declared that his party has a tacit understanding with the TRS, and both parties together will ensure the Congress or the BJP do not come into power in Telangana. Fielding candidates and making them withdraw before the deadline was a strategic plan. The candidates have been fielded in areas where there is a considerable Muslim population to assess the strategy, strengths and weaknesses of the Congress-led alliance,” said political analyst Palwai Raghavendra Reddy.
Telangana goes to polls on 7 December and the results will be declared on 11 December. The main contest is between the TRS and the Congress, which has aligned with the TDP, Telangana Jana Samithi and the Communist Party of India.