Jubliee Hills contest: Azharuddin loss is mired in a tale of twists and turns

Hyderabad: Coming at a close second, former cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin from the Congress party lost by 16,490 votes to Maganti Gopinath of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in the contest for Jubilee Hills, which was one of the neck-to-neck races during the 2023 Telangana State Assembly Elections.

The issues started at the time of the MLA candidate selection when the Congress cadre was upset that Azharuddin was chosen for the Jubilee Hills seat. Some of the cadre and members even moved to BRS after Azharuddin was fielded. The Congress party’s reason for fielding a Muslim candidate from this constituency as it has a sizeable Muslim population.

AIMIM springs a surprise

After Azharuddin was nominated by the Congress party, All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) fielded its Shaikpet municipal corporator Md Rashed Farazuddin for the seat. This came as a huge surprise as AIMIM never made its presence felt in this area. The first-time candidate of AIMIM is now in fourth place with a vote share of 7,829.

An acrimony of sorts

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi and Azharuddin’s family have business and personal relationships. In the run-up to the campaign, there was a lot of bad blood as there was a war of words between the two. During the political campaigning, the Congress party alleged that “Owaisi had fielded a candidate from Jubilee Hills to scuttle the prospects of Congress party in the constituency.” The final number game in the result shows that a dent was created by AIMIM in Jubilee Hills.

Others

The other 15 candidates have polled a total of 3,377 votes. Some of the independent candidates have got less than 100 votes and others less than 500. The Bahujan Samaj Party polled 828 votes while the Alliance of Democratic Reforms Party polled 901 votes. As many as 1,329 NOTA votes were polled from the area.

Azharuddin’s political journey

Azharuddin joined the Congress party in 2009, contested the general election from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, and became a member of Parliament. In 2014, he also contested the general election from Tonk-Sawai in Rajasthan but lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party. The residents in Jubilee Hills calculated the political chart of Azharuddin and his chances of serving the constituency by drawing comparisons in his performance, both online and offline.