Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat: The MIM Stronghold

By Shaik Ahmed Ali

Hyderabad is the Muslim dominant seat where the community constitutes about 70% of the total voters. It comprises of Malakpet, Karwan, Goshamahal, Charminar, Chandrayangutta, Yakutpura and Bahadurpura. Six out of seven Assembly segments were won by the MIM candidates while one seat Goshamahal was won by M Mukesh Goud of Congress.

The sitting MP, Asaduddin Owaisi, was studying law in London in 1994 when he was summoned by his father and Hyderabad MP Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi to contest from the Charminar seat.

The MIM was in trouble due to the split caused by the party MLA Amanullah Khan who later floated Majlis Bachao Tehreek. Asaduddin Owaisi was the lone MIM candidate who got elected to the assembly in 1994. But soon he took control of the party and got re-elected to the assembly in 1999, besides ensuring party’s victory on three other seats.

Due to ill-health and old age, Salahuddin Owaisi retired from electoral politics in 2004 and Asaduddin got elected from the Hyderabad seat. He retained the seat in 2009 elections and this time too he is in the fray and is the strongest contender.

As against 13,93,242 electors in 2009 elections, there are  16,61,128 voters in 2014 polls. The increase of 267,886 voters including 43,386 electors aged between 18-19 years is not likely to have an impact on the results. While there were 23 contestants in 2009, there are 15 candidates this time including four independents. The prominent candidates include Asaduddin Owaisi of All Indian Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, S Krishna Reddy of Indian National Congress and Dr  Bhagavanth Rao of Bharatiya Janata Party.

The other candidates include Rashid Shareef of Telangana Rashtra Samithi, S Khaja Moinuddin of All India Azad Congress Party, Jaya Vindhyala of Socialist Party (India), Binghi Rajashekar Pyramid Party of India, Boddu Sainath Reddy of YSRCP, N Mahender Singh of Nava Bharat National Party, Lubna Sarwath of Aam Admi Party, Syed Mustafa Mahmood          of Majlis Bachavo Tahreek and independent candidates Md Osman, Shaik Moin, Syed Abdul Gaffer and M.A. Habeeb.

Unlike 2009 elections, when Siasat Editor Zahid Ali Khan gave a tough contest to Asaduddin Owaisi, the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat is not likely to witness any keen contest this time. While Asad Owaisi is confident of a comfortable victory with a huge margin, his main rival Bhagavanth Rao of BJP feels that he could win the seat on the plank of development.

In Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat, Goshamahal has the largest number of 266,641 voters followed by Yakutpura – 257231; Karwan – 255,442; Chandrayangutta – 241,882; Malakpet – 235,448; Bahadurpura – 227,911 and Charminar – 176,573.

Hyderabad MPs 1957 – 2009