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Journalism of Courage
The influence of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) in Hyderabad is best reflected by the Charminar Assembly constituency, which the Asaduddin Owaisi-led party has never lost over the last six decades.
The AIMIM has kept its grip on Charminar and other seats in Hyderabad’s “Old City” since the 1967 Assembly polls, first by backing Independent candidates from there and later replacing them with its own nominees.
In 1962, its leader Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi, Asaduddin’s father, won his first Assembly election from Pathergatti as an Independent. However, the breakthrough came in 1967, when three Independents backed by the organisation got elected as the MLAs, including Salahuddin who won from the Charminar seat that came into existence following the 1963 delimitation exercise.
The AIMIM continued to gain cultural ground in the area, and the Independents kept winning their seats in Old Hyderabad with its support till 1989, when the organisation started fielding its own candidates in the Assembly elections. In 1994, Asaduddin would also make his debut by contesting and winning the Charminar seat.
The AIMIM currently holds seven seats in the 119-member Telangana Assembly – Charminar, Yakutpura, Karwan, Malakpet, Bahadurpura, Chandrayangutta and Nampally. Six of these seven segments, which have been retained by the party since 2009, fall in Old City, which encompasses areas marked with historical remnants of the Deccan Sultanate and the Asif Jahi-era monuments.
In the upcoming polls too, the AIMIM seems to be leading the race in Old City, although it may run into some hurdles in a few constituencies.
At Madina Hotel, where Salahuddin (called “Salar-e-Millat”) was said to have been a regular, its cashier Nasir Bin Abud, 50, sums it up: “Ek lagaav hai unse, saalon se (We have a bond with Owaisis for years)”. He adds in Dakhani, “We might find faults with them for five years over bad roads and drainages, but eventually our vote goes to them.”
In Yakutpura, 20-year-old Rufsana, who will be voting for the first time, points out another sentiment that is integral to the AIMIM’s winning streak. “Woh Muslimo ke liye teharte… Idhar koi dange fasaad nahi hote. Kisi to alag nahi dekhte (They stand up for Muslims. We do not have any riots. Nobody is discriminated against).”
The Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat, represented by Salahuddin from 1984 to 2004 and by Asaduddin since, is estimated to have a 60 per cent Muslim population. Seven of the eight Assembly segments that constitute this Lok Sabha seat are represented by the AIMIM, with the remaining Goshamahal seat being the only one that the BJP won in the state in the 2018 polls.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Asaduddin identifies a key factor that accounts for the party’s success – accessibility. “Throughout the year, six days a week, we sit in our party office (Darussalam) without stopping anyone from meeting our MLAs, MLCs and corporators. We follow up on their complaints, are always in the midst of the people and have a strong cadre,” the AIMIM chief says.
In Chandrayangutta, represented by Asaduddin’s brother and party firebrand Akbaruddin since 1999, Abdul Sheikh Qayyum, 38, who works in construction, says “paani, tanki, bijlee, light and road problems can all be taken up with the local corporator” — AIMIM has 44 of the 150 corporators in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation — who he says is just a phone call away.
At Nimrah Cafe, famous for its Irani chai, Mohammad Farooquddin Siddiqui, 28, is all praise for the educational institutions, run by the party’s Dar-us-Salam Educational Trust (DET), basti dawakhanas and the Owaisi Hospital.
The AIMIM started off as a cultural organisation in 1929 to unite various Muslim sects under the Nizam. Nawab Bahadur Yar Jung ran it between 1938 and 1944, when it is said to have assumed a dominant role in the erstwhile Hyderabad state. Subsequently, it was under Qazim Razvi, who led the Razakars, a Muslim-led militia that clamped down heavily on Hindus, Communists and others who were fighting against the feudal Nizam rule.
After Operation Polo — the action of the Indian Army that led to the integration of Hyderabad with the Indian Union in 1948 — Razvi was imprisoned till 1957. He was released on the condition that he would shift to Pakistan. Before he did, he summoned a meeting of the Majlis and handed over the reins to a lawyer named Abdul Wahid Owaisi, Salahuddin’s father.
The AIMIM has been under attack from the Congress and the BJP for this part of its history. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has also taken a swipe at the party by saying that only the BJP can save Telangana from “modern Razakars”.
Wahid had revamped the organisation, adopted a new constitution, and articulated the rights and demands of the Muslim community. Its first foray into politics was in the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections in 1960, when the organisation-backed candidates defeated 17 of the 21 Congress nominees.
In 1993, the AIMIM suffered a split, when a party rebel Amanullah Khan led a breakaway faction to form the Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT) after a face-off with Salahuddin over the party’s stand on the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Salahuddin was also the president of the Babri Masjid Action Committee.
Khan held the Chandrayangutta seat for five successive terms until 1999, when Akbaruddin defeated him. The MBT however continues to be in the fray and has fielded six candidates, including Khan’s son Amjed Ullah Khan, from Yakutpura, in the November 30 elections.
On his part, Asaduddin dismisses charges that the AIMIM has not allowed any opposition to its dominance in the old quarters of the capital city. “Everyone is free to contest elections and they do,” he says.
However, there has been resentment among locals about the poor civic amenities in the constituencies represented by the AIMIM legislators. A resident of Hussaini Alam, who did not wish to be named, says: “They are terrible at governance. I do not think they are responsive either.”
The AIMIM is also plagued by complaints of encroachments and land grabbing in its constituencies. A local resident charges: “Their (AIMIM leaders) influence is through muscle power and violence. On paper, there are a lot of Independents. But in reality, people are scared to pose a challenge to them. I know of instances where people have been treated with violence.” She adds, “Misuse of power mostly happens at the corporator’s level.”
In the current polls, the AIMIM has thrown its hat in the ring in nine seats. Apart from the usual seven, the AIMIM has also fielded candidates in the Jubilee Hills and Rajendranagar constituencies, which come under the Greater Hyderabad region.
In Jubilee Hills, the party’s Rashid Farazuddin will face off against the Congress’s Mohammad Azharuddin, the former Indian cricket team captain. In Rajendranagar, the AIMIM has fielded its lone Hindu candidate Swami Yadav.
In its strongholds, the AIMIM might face a stiff challenge in Nampally, where the party has shifted its sitting MLA Jaffar Hussain Mehraj to Yakutpura and fielded former mayor Mohammed Majid Hussain in his place. The new AIMIM candidate is locked here in a tough fight against the Congress’s Feroze Khan, who had lost the 2018 election to Jaffar by 9,675 votes.
A furniture seller in Nampally says: “The sitting MLA was not accessible at all. Work related to a pipeline was started but not completed yet. Despite losing, Feroze stepped in and helped us. Yeh log raj kar rahe hain. Unko jhatka lagna hai. (These people have been ruling. They need a shock).”
The civic issues continue to be among major public concerns in the densely-populated Old City. The Charminar Pedestrian project, for instance, has been in a limbo for two decades. Asaduddin, however, claims he has spent a huge chunk of his MPLADS funds on the road development programmes, even as he also highlights the IT tower that is slated to come up in Malakpet.
