Owaisi in his labyrinth: Canvassing in Old Hyderabad streets to live TV performance

Asasuddin Owaisi seems to be playing truant at the height of a crucial campaign in his home base, Hyderabad. (Sketch by E.P Unny)

Having failed to locate the leader, we look for the next best thing – his workplace. After a long drive through narrowing streets, we finally stop by “Darus Salam” at a big doorway of the Nizam vintage. It looks anything but a party office. The next moment it opens to reveal an array of buildings that house besides a couple of colleges and a newspaper office the AIMIM’s headquarters.

Which of the Owaisis are you looking for, asks an elder. The younger brother, MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi, recently made headlines when he was booked for allegedly threatening a police officer who had asked him to wind up his speech before the approching 10 pm campaign deadline.

Having made sure we are not crime reporters and are seeking audience with barrister Asaduddin Owaisi, the AIMIM president, we are directed to one of the nine constituencies where the party is contesting, which include its seven sitting seats in Old Hyderabad.

Owaisi is a four-term Hyderabad MP. (Sketch by E.P Unny)

In Rajendranagar, Swamy Yadav, the party’s only non-Muslim candidate, is stepping out with a few associates on house visits. His appeal is largely because he is also a corporator. The AIMIM’s core strength is at the municipal level in Old Hyderabad and ‘Owaisi Saab’ spins it as a developmental plus with an appeal for the party’s twin presence at the local body and Assembly levels – a closer to the ground “double engine”. A leaf out of the BJP playbook.

He can take leaves out of several playbooks and shuffle them into his own flip book. This is evident when we finally locate him at a live TV event. At the TV 9 studio floor, Owaisi is in full flow. Snappy answers to every question with an eloquence that masks serial whataboutery. Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party are roundly blamed. The comebacks are a bit more nuanced when it comes to the BJP. “While Modiji sounds so inclusive, why is Himanta Biswa Sarma coming all the way from Assam asking for my head?”

The performance is as visual as it is vocal. The tall figure shifts in his chair from time to time with natural ease and backs his words with fluid gestures. Doesn’t lose the audience for a second. Barring the sceptic looking for contradicting gestures, he leaves no one in doubt on his unequivocal support to KCR or K Chandrashekar Rao, the Chief Minister and BRS supremo.