As BJP turns up the heat on BRS, Owaisi’s party sits pretty in stronghold

Hyderabad: The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) appears to be sitting pretty in its stronghold of Hyderabad.

While focusing its efforts on retaining seven assembly seats in Muslim-majority pockets of Telangana, the party led by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi is extending its support to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in the rest of the state.

Like in 2014 and 2018, it is likely to confine itself to 7-8 constituencies in Hyderabad and appeal to the Muslim community in the remaining constituencies in the state to back BRS.

The AIMIM has been dominating Hyderabad politics for over four decades and despite challenges faced in a few elections, it has maintained its firm grip on its stronghold.

The AIMIM fortress remained immune to the political waves that swept the undivided Andhra Pradesh and even the bifurcation of the state.

As in the past, the party has an unofficial electoral understanding with the KCR-led BRS. The ruling party leaders admit that there will be ‘friendly contests’ in the seven assembly seats and the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat held by the AIMIM.

After snapping ties with the Congress after the death of then chief minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy in 2009, Owaisi’s party was on its own. Though the AIMIM was not in favour of the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, it quickly adapted itself to the new political realities post 2014.

In TRS (now BRS) and KCR, it found an ally it can trust. KCR’s stand of equi-distance from both the BJP and the Congress also synced well with Owaisi’s thinking.

The secular image of KCR, his emphasis on preserving the ‘Ganga Jamuni tehzeeb’ (communal harmony) of Telangana and the schemes launched by the BRS government for minority welfare further cemented their ties.

Such has been the friendship between KCR and Owaisi that BJP leaders often taunt the BRS that the steering of its car (BRS symbol) is in the hands of Owaisi. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi made this remark at his public meeting in Telangana on September 30.

On a few occasions in the recent past, Asaduddin Owaisi criticised the BRS government for not honouring its commitment for the welfare of minorities but with the elections fast approaching his message to the people is clear – vote for Majlis where it has its candidates and support BRS in the remaining constituencies.

The AIMIM chief is satisfied with KCR’s rule during the last nine years. “There was not a single incident of mob lynching in the state. KCR ensured that law and order is maintained and communal harmony is protected,” Owaisi said at the foundation stone laying ceremony of an IT Park in the old city last week. “There were some shortcomings and loopholes but the overall picture during the last nine years is satisfactory,” he said.

Owaisi, who has been addressing public meetings for the last couple of months, is cautioning people that if the Congress comes to power, the problem of communal riots may raise its head again in Hyderabad.

It’s not just the BJP but the Congress too is training its guns on Owaisi. While addressing a public meeting in Hyderabad last month, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had remarked that the BJP, BRS and AIMIM are all one.

Comparing the problems faced by Muslims in other states ruled by the BJP or the Congress, Asaduddin Owaisi claims that in Telangana the situation is better because of their political voice.

With a huge concentration of Muslim voters in Hyderabad and some other districts, they are in a position to tilt the balance in nearly half of the 119 Assembly constituencies.

Muslim voters are believed to be between 35 and 60 per cent in 10 constituencies in Hyderabad and anywhere between 10 to 40 per cent in 50 other constituencies spread across the rest of the state.

Except the eight Assembly constituencies where AIMIM candidates were in the fray in 2018, the party backed TRS in all the remaining constituencies.

While AIMIM’s political opponents accuse the party of pursuing communal politics, KCR defended Asaduddin Owaisi saying he is fighting for the Constitutional rights of Muslims in a democratic manner.

The BRS chief had even talked of using the services of Owaisi to forge a national alternative to both the BJP and the Congress. As both BRS and AIMIM are not part of the INDIA bloc, Owaisi has suggested that KCR lead the efforts for forging a third front.

The BJP has been targeting KCR for his friendship with Owaisi and accusing the BRS leader of pursuing the politics of appeasement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and other central leaders of the BJP have slammed KCR for appeasement. Digging up the past, the state leadership of the saffron party has been making bitter attacks on AIMIM, calling it a party of ‘razakars’.

‘Razakars’ were the volunteers or supporters of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) who backed the Nizam who wanted to keep the state independent after India gained independence in 1947.

After 13 months, Hyderabad state acceded to the Indian Union following India’s military action codenamed ‘Operation Polo’.

MIM was founded in1927 to promote the socio-economic and educational development of Muslims. After ‘Operation Polo’ hastened the accession of Hyderabad state to the Indian Union in 1948, MIM was banned.

However, in 1958 it was revived with a new constitution by Moulana Abdul Wahid Owaisi, grandfather of Asaduddin Owaisi. A well-known lawyer in those days, Abdul Wahid Owaisi converted it into a political party to fight for the rights of the minorities as enshrined in the Indian Constitution.

“Those who wanted to go have gone. Those who love the country chose to remain here,” says Asaduddin Owaisi in response to the BJP’s taunt of ‘Razakars’.

From municipal wards in the old city of Hyderabad to two Lok Sabha seats in 2019, the AIMIM has come a long way in its six-decade-long journey in independent India.

More than three decades after first winning the Hyderabad seat, the party expanded itself in 2019 by wresting the Aurangabad seat in Maharashtra from the Shiv Sena.

A party confined to the old city of Hyderabad till a few years ago, the AIMIM was the butt of ridicule by its rivals for calling itself an all India party.

The party now has 10 MLAs – seven in Telangana, two in Maharashtra and one in Bihar.