Despite MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi’s recent assertions that the party was serious about extending its base outside the old quarters of the city and testing its strength in new segments in the upcoming elections, a host of ‘non-serious’ candidates nominated in some of the key constituencies have come as a surprise for party cadres as well as poll watchers.
For instance, one N Mohan Rao has been nominated for Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency. In the recent past, the party chief had time and again said that they would put up a strong candidate in Secunderabad as it wanted to capture its nearly 25-30 per cent Muslim vote base, but the choice of candidate has stumped many as Rao is a completely unknown face.
The only bit of information one could glean about Rao is that he is the husband of Swaroopa Rani, a Majlis corporator in 2004.
Similarly, the party had claimed that this time around it would be sincerely laying claim on the Jubilee Hill Assembly constituency, given its sizeable concentration of Muslim population and mix of voters from all sections of society.
Finally it announced the name of Navin Yadav, son of Chinna Srisailam Yadav. Srisailam Yadav has a 20-yearold history sheet with the Jubilee Hills police station and has many cases pending against him, including attempt to murder. Naveen too has a few poll related cases against him.
Others nominated by the party include Dwarka Dharanikota (Malkajgiri), G Motilal Naik (Bhongir) and P Venkatnarayana Reddy (Nandyal), names that do not have an immediate Majlis connect with the populace.
The party’s plans of extending base has therefore come under scrutiny with some poll analysts dismissing it as “mere talk, nothing else,” while others pointing to the MIM’s larger game plan. The party has fielded 37 candidates, including four for Lok Sabha, from Telangana and Seemandhra, its largest ever in elections so far.
This, the election analysts said, was done to keep the party’s symbol “flying.”
It can be recalled that the Election Commission had some weeks ago taken back the party’s popular ‘kite’ symbol as it was not a fixed symbol and the party had failed to lay claim on it in time before polls.
However, after the MIM pleaded that it be given back the symbol, the EC agreed only under the condition that the party puts up at least 30 candidates for the upcoming polls.
The party gave an undertaking that it would put up the required number of candidates following which the EC accepted the plea and returned the kite symbol to MIM. Some of the party’s nominations are therefore nothing but an exercise to fulfill the undertaking it had given to the EC, said sources.
“Retaining kite as its symbol has proved to be long drawn and expensive affair for the party. There was no other alternative before it,” they said.
However, sources said that while following the EC guidelines the MIM also wanted to improve its tally of elected representative. At the same time, given the fluid political scenario, it decided not to declare its alliance with one party or the other.
According poll watchers, the MIM is following the strategy of “maintaining equal distance” from the Congress, its former ally, the TRS and the YSRCP.
“This non-declaration of alliance with any of the major parties gives MIM the leverage to deal with them on ‘seat to seat’ basis. Based on the understanding in a given constituency its followers are issued direction in whose favour they should cast their vote. They could even be asked not to vote for the MIM candidate and select somebody else,” they said.
Poll observers believe that given the multi-cornered fights in several constituencies and the strategy adopted by the MIM, the possibility of it adding one or two names to its existing members in the Assembly cannot be ruled out.
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