HYDERABAD: AIMIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday announced that his party would not field a candidate in the Jubilee Hills byelection and instead extend support to a “good candidate”.
Congress candidate Naveen Yadav met the AIMIM chief after filing his nomination papers for the bypoll.
Speaking to reporters on the occasion, Owaisi said it was only a byelection and its outcome would not alter the government. While refraining from naming the candidate his party would support, he clarified that he would not campaign in the bypoll.
Dismissing the ‘sentiment card’ being played by the opposition BRS, Owaisi said, “This is a sentiment for development. It is the sentiment of around 3.98 lakh voters, not of a single candidate.”
He pointed out that the constituency faced several issues, including poor sewerage lines, inadequate hospitals, graveyard facilities, and bad roads. Alleging that the previous BRS government had done little for the segment during its 10-year rule, Owaisi said the Congress government still had three more years in office to address these concerns.
Recalling the BRS’s performance in recent elections, he noted that the party secured 37% of votes in the 2023 Assembly polls but only 15% in the subsequent Lok Sabha elections. “The BRS votes were transferred to the BJP, and we will stop the BJP in this bypoll,” Owaisi asserted.
It may be recalled that AIMIM candidate Mohammed Rashed Farazuddin had polled around 8,000 votes in the Jubilee Hills Assembly election held in 2023.