HYDERABAD: The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) succeeded in what they set out to do. The party managed to retain all seven of its constituencies in Old City. However, it did lose Rajendranagar where it had fielded first-timer Mirza Rahmat Baig against a strong TRS incumbent. While AIMIM cruised to victory in Chandrayangutta, Charminar, Bahadurpura and Yakutpura, it had to fight it out in Nampally, Malakpet and Karwan in Old City. Karwan, especially, proved to be quite a scare for the party as BJP’s Amar Singh was leading as late as till 3 pm on Tuesday. As for Chandrayangutta, news broke out about Akbaruddin Owaisi winning the seat as early as 10 am when his vote tally stood approximately at around 20,000. His nearest opponents, BJP’s Syed Shehzadi and Congress’ Esa bin Obaid Misri, were still in their hundreds. At the end of the day, Akbaruddin amassed a massive margin of over 80000 votes against his nearest opponent. Bahadurpura candidate and previous MLA from the constituency Mohammed Moazzam Khan also amassed one of the widest margins, not only within the party but also across the state. He won with 82000 votes over a ‘friendly’ TRS contestant. Similarly Charminar, from where five-time Yakutpura MLA from Mumtaz Ahmed Khan was fielded, the party cruised to a comfortable win over a BJP candidate. Khan was moved out of Yakupura this time to counter a strong anti-incumbent sentiment against him.
Battle for Karwan
At Karwan, throughout the day BJP’s Amar Singh maintained a heavy lead, with contestant and previous MLA Kausar Mohiuddin languishing at third or even at fourth place. It all changed after 3 pm when Mohiuddin overtook Singh and amassed a comfortable 42k lead. Likewise, at Nampally, AIMIM’s Jaffar Hussain Mehraz was racing neck-to-neck with Congress’ Feroze Khan. After each round, the difference between the two was mere thousands. In the end, however, Mehraz won with an uneasy lead of around 9,000 votes