© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
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Journalism of Courage
Barely three days after locking horns in the Telangana Assembly, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader and Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister KT Rama Rao or KTR and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM)’s floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi signalled that they have sunk their differences, making it clear that both parties would continue to work together and support each other.
On February 4, Akbaruddin Owaisi, younger brother of AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, and KTR, son of Chief Minister and BRS supremo K Chandrashekar Rao or KCR, had a heated exchange marked with snubs and threats on the floor of the House during the discussion on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address.
Participating in the discussion in the Assembly, Owaisi said the BRS government should have included the “step-motherly’’ treatment of Telangana at the hands of the BJP-led Centre in the Governor’s address. He also accused the KCR government of neglecting the development of the Old City of Hyderabad, which has been the stronghold of the AIMIM.
Incensed by Owaisi’s lengthy diatribe about “injustices’’ meted out to the Old City, KTR returned the fire. Taking a barb at Owaisi, KTR said that although the AIMIM has just seven MLAs, the party is given too much time during any discussion in the Assembly and that its MLAs “complain unnecessarily”.
Their sparring turned more bitter with Owaisi warning that the AIMIM could be back with 15 MLAs in the House if they contest 50 of the state’s total 119 constituencies in the Assembly elections due in December 2023. “I will speak with my party president (Asaduddin) on this. If we have 15 seats, we can have more leverage,’’ he said.
On February 7, however, both KTR and Owaisi were all smiles at a review meeting taken by the former on development works being carried out in the Old City, which was also attended by Home Minister M Mohmood Ali.
Seeking to allay Owaisi’s concerns then, KTR said the works on several civic infrastructure projects, including road widening, flyovers, sewerage pipelines and conservation of heritage structures, were already being undertaken in the Old City.
KTR and Owaisi were later seen together again at the relaunch of the electric double-decker buses in the city. Owaisi thanked KTR, expressing satisfaction over “priority” being given by the government to the development works in the Old City.
The BRS and the AIMIM are considered allies but their MLAs routinely spar in the Assembly over various issues. Owaisi’s threat has not been taken seriously in the state’s political circles as it was seen to be a “momentary outburst”. Given that the AIMIM’s support base is centred on a number of Muslim-dominated constituencies in the state, especially in Hyderabad, the party could play a spoilsport for the BRS in several seats if it chooses to contest across the state. In the December 2018 Assembly elections, the AIMIM had contested only 8 seats in the Hyderabad region, winning seven of them.
The BRS (formerly Telangana Rashtra Samithi) had an informal alliance with the AIMIM in the 2018 Assembly polls as well as the May 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
In his campaign for the previous Assembly polls, Asaduddin Owaisi had made a pitch in favour of the TRS. The AIMIM and the TRS had then also not fielded candidates against each other in several constituencies so as not to undermine the prospects of their respective candidates there. Such an informal alliance between them is likely to continue in the upcoming Assembly polls with the BJP having emerged as a key rival of the BRS and the Congress attempting vigorously to regain its lost ground in the state. Both the BRS and the AIMIM cannot afford a split in their votes by taking on each other, which would benefit other players in the fray.
