HYDERABAD: Tomorrow when the counting starts and the results start surfacing, one can expect a few surprises. However, going by the various exit polls, the () is likely to retain its seven constituencies, if not add the eighth — Rajendranagar — to its kitty. If that happens, the party would be winning through its numerous public meetings where both chief Asaduddin Owaisi and his brother Chandrayangutta candidate Akbaruddin Owaisi roar about the injustices the minority community has faced since Independence. This rhetoric is not new but has been continuing for the last 60 years when the party was then headed by Asaduddin’s grandfather Abdul Wahed Owaisi and then his father, Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi.
However, Old City was not always an AIMIM bastion, recorded a study ‘Political participation and communalisation of electoral politics in Hyderabad’. The findings, verified with the ECI data, says, during the 1950s, the Leftists dominated the political scenario not only in Old City but in entire Hyderabad. In fact, the Muslim-dominated constituencies were won by the Communist party called the People’s Democratic Front (PDF). The other strong contender other than the Communists was Congress. Election Commission’s 1952 General Election data is further proof to the fact that Muslim votes were pro-Left.
However, that changed in the 1957 General Elections when the minority community switched their loyalties to Congress. In the same year, the MIM was revived by Syed Kasim Razvi, the chief of the militant unit called the Razakars. The party under Abdul Wahed Owaisi’s leadership participated in the municipal council elections, and that was the first time that citizens of Old City shifted their disposition from the Left and the “secular” Congress to a party which predominantly talked about the upliftment of a minority community.
That shift was reflected in the results as MIM nominated Independent candidates won 19 seats in the 33 seats they contested. They also defeated 17 Congress nominees and demonstrated their hold over the minority masses. Thus began MIM’s electoral advancements by concentrating on minority-heavy constituencies.
However, it was the 1967 General Elections that consolidated the Hindu and Muslim community votes in Old City. That election saw the entry of Jana Sangh, a party that existed between 1951-1957. They fielded a candidate in the Muslim-dominated Old City and campaigned for the Charminar seat where the Jana Sangh chief himself was the candidate. One of the reasons for choosing the Charminar seat, experts say, was because of the huge number of Hindu traders who reside there. Abdul Wahed’s son Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi was fielded against the Jana Sangh and a factions-riddled Congress.
Like the 2018 Assembly election campaigns, where Asaduddin Owaisi and Akbaruddin trained their guns on Congress, the discourse in 1967 was similar.
"For both the Jana Sangh and the Majlis the need was to deviate the electorate from the Congress. So, they concentrated their criticism on the Congress, at the same time employing a strong pro-community stance in order to enhance their appeal among the people. This inevitably alienated and antagonised the other community, giving rise to communal tensions ," a study said. At the end, Sultan Salahuddin won.
Critics of BJP and AIMIM to this day allege that both parties make inflammatory statements in order to retain their electorate. Though this allegations are not substantiated, one cannot deny that creating a communal atmosphere do not pay electoral dividends.