Parties vie for minority votes in Hyderabad

By M H Ahssan

To win over nearly 60 lakh Muslim voters, eight major political parties in the state have created a sort of record this election by fielding community candidates from 41 assembly and 11 parliamentary constituencies.

Topping the list in allotting the largest number of assembly seats to Muslims is the Congress that has provided 12 berths to them. However, it has fielded only one candidate for Lok Sabha - Kasim Khan from Hindupur.

Prajarajyam has scored over Congress in putting up five minority candidates for Lok Sabha seats. But it has only 10 candidates for the assembly.

Khaleel Basha, vice president, minority affairs of Prajarajyam told TOI: “We still have to come up with one more list. Wait and watch for some more Muslim candidates from our party “.

A senior Congress leader said that the party had planned to give five more assembly seats to Muslims from constituencies like Kurnool, Mahboobnagar and Anantpur. But our plan couldn’t fructify. We had allotted the Zaheerabad Lok Sabha seat to Minister Fareeduddin but he shifted his base at the last minute to Ambarpet assembly segment. “That is the reason we have only Muslim candidates for Lok Sabha,” the leaders said.

Telugu Desam has fielded two candidates for Lok Sabha : Zahid Ali Khan from Hyderabad and N Md Farooq from Nandyal besides nine for assembly. A TDP source revealed: “We could not work out more numbers in the Muslim community because of the Grand Alliance. Had the TDP gone alone, you could have seen more aspirants from the community being selected”.

As expected MIM has fielded all its five sitting MLAs and added two more : Virasat Rasool Khan from Nampally and Ahmed Balala from Malakpet. The party president Asaduddin Owaisi is in the fray, as in the past election, from Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat.

But TRS that has continually made tall promises to Muslims has disappointed them. It has fielded merely four Muslim candidates for the assembly. However, of its total nine Lok Sabha candidates two are Muslims : Syed Yousuf Ali from Zaheerabad and Mohammed Mahmood Ali, Secunderabad.