Telangana Elections 2023: Can Congress capitalise on Owaisi no-show in his bastion against BJP leader Raja Singh? 

Muslims outnumber Lodhas by nearly 20,000. These two groups are followed by Marwaris with their origin in the Marwar region of Rajasthan, Marathas from the Marathwada region, besides local Yadava and Dalit families. It is doubtful whether any of the old South Indian cities could claim to have such a heterogeneous mix of settlers from North of the Vindhyas.

When the BJP performed dismally in Telangana in 2018, it was Goshamahal that offered a flickering hope for saffron politics. What made Raja Singh’s achievement phenomenal was that he had won in AIMIM’s and Asaduddin Owaisi’s bastion. He soon became an icon of the Hindutva brand of politics, earning national attention with his hardline views.

The secret of his electoral success lies in his caste kinfolk and the other settler communities from the north rallying behind him solidly, besides the consolidation of the Hindu vote. Singh had won the assembly elections in 2014 too, both times braving the tide of regional sentiment, which favoured KCR across the state.

Owaisi’s Inscrutable Goshamahal Strategy

But the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat remains a citadel of the AIMIM, in its kitty since 1984 without interruption. Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi, Asaduddhin’s father, represented the seat six times – as an Independent once and as a Majlis leader for the remainder of his long tenure. Later, Asaduddin Owaisi had won the seat four times in a row since 2004.

Except for Goshamahal, the remaining six segments in Hyderabad Parliament seat, continue to be under the sway of Owaisi’s charm. A question has arisen why the AIMIM is leaving the seat of its sworn enemy uncontested especially when it houses the party headquarters of Darus Salam, besides failing to mop up so many core party votes and other Muslim votes in the constituency.

AIMIM had stayed away from the poll fray in 2018 too. The Congress claim this lends credence to its allegations of a secret Owaisi-BJP pact. In fact, Congress has been accusing Owaisi of acting as a vote-cutter nationally against “secular” parties to benefit BJP.

Owaisi’s decision has also fueled vociferous protests from within the AIMIM. Its former corporator Khaja Bilal, who aspired to contest against Raja Singh in Goshamahal on the AIMIM ticket quit the party, accusing Owaisi of being hand in glove with Raja Singh.

BRS has fielded Nanda Kishore Vyas and is hoping to win the election with the support of the Muslim vote in the absence of AIMIM candidate. But BRS faces a tough task if the charges of a BJP-AIMIM secret deal begin to work in favour of the Congress. In Karnataka, Congress had consolidated the Muslim vote by accusing third parties like JD(S), SDPI and AIMIM of being in cahoots with BJP.

Goshamahal: Waiting For Vikas

Meanwhile, overshadowed by the politics of communal polarisation, Goshamahal reels under utter backwardness with bad roads, poor infrastructure in schools and hospitals and lack of proper drinking water and drainage facilities. Dhulpet, one of the GHMC divisions in Goshamahal, which earned notoriety as a centre of drug peddling and manufacturing arrack until the KCR government banned illicit liquor, is a classic case of denial of alternative livelihoods for the local people.

Not surprisingly, voter turnout in Goshamahal is much lower than for Telangana. It was just 58 percent when Telangana recorded 73 percent in 2018. While civic issues going neglected, Singh firmly holds on to his twin ideological planks – protection of cows and Hindu Dharma. Raja Singh has more than 100 criminal cases,18 of which were communal offences.

He was suspended from BJP for derogatory comments on Prophet Mohammed. But during the period of suspension he has acquired a national profile, as one of the prominent faces of the Hindu Far Right. His streak of electoral victories during his 15-year political career as a corporator of GHMC (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation) and two-time legislator speak volumes of why he doesn’t need to focus on developmental outcomes.

Gali Nagaraja is a senior journalist, formerly associated with The Hindu, The Times of India, and Hindustan Times for over three decades. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.