BRS and its MLA did little for Jubilee Hills constituency, elect a ‘young, local’ candidate: MIM chief Owaisi

Ahead of the upcoming Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency by-polls, Hyderabad parliamentarian Asaduddin Owaisi criticised the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the late former legislator Maganti Gopinath, accusing both of having done little for the area, even as he urged voters of that constituency to elect a ‘young, local’ candidate.

Mr. Owaisi, who is the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president, was speaking in the Shaikpet ward, which is a part of the Jubilee Hills constituency, and represented by a corporator from his party.

“I appeal to you all to take a good decision during the upcoming by-election. Vote for a local, young person who is active and make the candidate successful,” Mr. Owaisi said.

The AIMIM chief maintained that his criticism of the BRS and Mr. Gopinath was not to score political brownie points, but to highlight the ground realities. The BRS and Mr. Gopinath, he said, were in power for 10 years but had not shown interest in the area.

“I am not saying this for scoring brownie points. Jubilee Hills should have been turned into a model constituency. But never was there any interest shown here. Interest was shown elsewhere, which you know,” he said, adding that the previous legislator “did no work”.

Mr. Owaisi claimed that it was he who had to represent civic issues to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Commissioner and other officers himself, and said he had given a list of pending works to Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, who assured that these would be taken up soon. The AIMIM, Mr. Owaisi said, has prepared a plan to improve civic infrastructure in the constituency.

Touching upon the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) efforts, he urged the public to ensure that political space for that party shrinks. “We should not let the BJP win from here,” he said.

In the 2014 elections, the AIMIM had fielded Naveen Yadav from the Jubilee Hills constituency, who is a resident of the same assembly segment. He is the son of Chinna Srisailam Yadav, who also had ties with the AIMIM. However, in the 2023 assembly elections, the party chose to filed the Shaikpet corporator Mohammed Farazuddin, who contested against Mr. Gopinath and Congress’ Mohammed Azharuddin — who was recently nominated to the Telangana State Legislative Council.

The Jubilee Hills by-poll has been witnessing parties seeking to serenade Muslim voters who are considerable in number. It was last week that BRS leader and former Information Technology Minister K.T. Ramarao met popular Muslim preacher Maulana Ahmed Naqshbandi, and his followers, in Rehmat Nagar, a part of the Jubilee Hills constituency. Mr. Rao tore into the Congress and accused that party of taking the Muslim community for granted.