HYDERABAD: The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) may be expanding to other States and strengthening its foothold in the national political arena. However, closer home, going by the number of seats it is contesting in the upcoming GHMC elections, some may say that the same ambition is lacking. The Hyderabad-based party is in fact contesting in lesser number of seats in the Greater Hyderabad municipal elections than it contested in 2016. According to information from the State Election Commission, AIMIM is contesting in 51 divisions out of 150. In contrast, in 2016, it contested from 60 seats.
With just a week to go for polling, the party has still not formally released its list of candidates. A party insider said, “We are a cadre-based party and we are contesting wherever we are strong.” In 2016, it won 44 divisions out of the 60 divisions it contested. This time the party is looking to retain those seats out of the 51, thus improving its turnover rate. However, achieving the same may be tougher than it might seem.
‘Friendly party’ TRS recently announced its intentions to increase its tally in the Old City area, the traditional foothold of AIMIM. The BJP too has been trying to make inroads in the area, with State president Bandi Sanjay recently visiting the Bhagyalakshmi Mandir.
The TRS is contesting all the 150 seats, after announcing that AIMIM is not a poll ally. The MIM too says TRS is a rival but is content with contesting in just one-third of the seats.In the remaining 100 divisions where the MIM is not contesting, TRS, BJP and Congress are going all out to bag the Muslim vote.
The MIM has traditionally won landslide victories in Muslim-dominated wards such as Pathergatti, where according to GHMC’s demography data from 2015, reside 47,966 Muslims as opposed to 5,474 Hindus. Similarly, the party has had similar comfortable results in Rein Bazar, Chandrayangutta, Dabeerpura and so on.
This time, the party will face strong contests in seats such as Akbarbagh, where incumbent corporator Syed Minhajuddin will be up against strong candidates from BJP, TRS and INC. In Akbarbagh, there are 19,770 Muslims and 19,909 Hindus. Whatever the results are, questions are being raised on the optics of contesting lesser number of seats in the same election where previous AIMIM stalwarts such as Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi had shown their prowess.
Power bills from April to June exorbitant: Owaisi
Terming the electricity bills from April to June as exorbitant, Owaisi demanded that charges of 300 units be waived by the State government. He also demanded that the flood relief of `10,000 be distributed again after December 1, apart from separate compensation for taxi and auto drivers
Woman candidates better qualified than men
A quick analysis of the affidavits filed by the candidates with the SEC show that the women candidates of AIMIM are far more qualified educationally than their male counterparts. While a few like Sameena Begum are doctors, many of them are postgraduates. Further, many of the party’s candidates like Syed Minhajuddin from Akbarbagh are crorepatis