AIMIM not to contest Jubilee Hills bypoll, backs Congress candidate

Hyderabad: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen will not contest the by-election to the Jubilee Hills Assembly seat, announced party president Asaduddin Owaisi, who clearly hinted at backing the Congress party to stop the BJP’s growth.

Congress candidate Naveen Yadav met Owaisi on Friday before filing his nomination for the November 11 by-election.

The Congress candidate was accompanied by party leader and former Indian cricket captain Mohammed Azharuddin, who unsuccessfully contested from the same constituency in 2023.

Owaisi said BRS had its MLA from Jubilee Hills for 10 years, and the party was in power, but it did not develop the constituency.

The Hyderabad MP said 3.98 lakh voters of the constituency want development. He said the constituency has many slum areas, and the civic amenities need to be improved in all the wards. “This byelection is a chance to develop the constituency,” he said.

The AIMIM chief also stated that this by-election wouldn’t have happened had BRS not given a ticket to Maganti Gopinath. “They knew that he was sick in 2023,” he said.

Gopinath passed away in June this year, necessitating the by-election.

BRS has fielded Gopinath’s wife Sunitha, while Congress has given a ticket to Naveen Yadav, who had contested from Jubilee Hills on an AIMIM ticket in the past.

Owaisi believes that the votes of BRS got transferred to the BJP in last year’s Lok Sabha elections.

He pointed out that BRS had secured 37 per cent votes in Jubilee Hills, but within 5 months, its vote share dropped to 15 per cent.

The Hyderabad MP underlined the need to stop the growth of the BJP in Jubilee Hills, which is one of the segments under the Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency.

Owaisi said he Naveen Yadav that his victory would be in taking all sections of the society with him.

Naveen Yadav had contested from Jubilee Hills as the candidate of AIMIM in 2014 but lost to Maganti Gopinath of BRS by 9,242 votes. In 2018, Naveen Yadav contested as an independent and finished a distant third.

Naveen Yadav joined Congress before the 2023 elections, but the party fielded Azharuddin, who lost to Gopinath by 16,337 votes.

Gopinath had secured 80,549 votes while Azharuddin had polled 64,212 votes.

BJP’s L. Deepak Reddy was in third position with 25,866 votes. AIMIM candidate Rashed Farazuddin finished fourth with just 7,848 votes.

BJP has decided to field Deepak Reddy once again.

IANS