Opinion: Hyderabad Powerplay - Madhavi Latha hopes to be an Impact Player against Owaisi

Opinion: Hyderabad Powerplay – Madhavi Latha hopes to be an Impact Player against Owaisi

An imaginary arrow shot in empty air by BJP candidate Madhavi Latha in the old city area of Hyderabad on Rama Navami has led to a real FIR against her by the city police. A complaint filed by one Mohammed Sheikh Imran charged Madhavi Latha with indulging in a deliberate and malicious act intended to outrage religious feelings with her bow-arrow gesture.

Truth be told, Madhavi Latha’s rather elegant pose – she is a trained Bharatanatyam dancer – by no stretch of imagination, was mischievously directed at the mosque. It was the cameraperson who panned the lens by another 20 to 30 degrees or more to make it seem as if the place of worship was the target. But in election season, when every brownie point matters, the viral video has provided the AIMIM with a quiver of arrows to shoot in the BJP’s direction.

Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency has been the fortress of the Owaisis for four decades now. While the senior Owaisi, Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi won every election from 1984 to 1999, his son Asaduddin Owaisi has carried the baton since 2004. To his credit, ‘Barrister Saheb’, as Asaduddin Owaisi is known in these parts, has increased his victory margin every election – growing from 1 lakh votes on his debut to 2.82 lakh votes in 2019.

But while the statistics may give it a feel of a David vs Goliath battle, do not forget that Madhavi Latha is on the ticket of the largest political party in the world. That gives her the confidence to punch above her political weight. The chairperson of Virinchi Hospitals in the city, she is a political greenhorn and fielding her has ensured she comes with no baggage.

What Madhavi Latha’s entry has done is to convert a no-contest into a high on histrionics battle. Known to be proficient in reciting Hindu scriptures, the BJP sees her as its best bet to tap into the Hindutva votebank. Madhavi Latha’s television appearance was lauded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who called it “exceptional” while praising her for making “very solid points” and doing so “with logic and passion”. In her campaign, she has ventured deep into the narrow lanes and bylanes of the Old City, striking up a conversation with Muslim men and women, requesting for “one chance to change their lives”. The attempt is to dissuade them from voting on the basis of their faith and instead think about the betterment of their lives.

Madhavi Latha is also banking on her work on the triple talaq bill and hopes every Muslim woman voter will not vote under the influence of her husband. She accuses Owaisi of having a patriarchal attitude and says the time has come for Muslim women to vote for the party that would further their interests.

But bringing down the AIMIM ‘kite’ (the party symbol) in the Old City won’t be easy, given that 59 percent of the 19.5 lakh strong electorate is Muslim and a large part of this voter base has always seen the Owaisis as its representative. Ask Owaisi about his opponent who is all over social media, and he says he is fighting the BJP ideology and not an individual. His speeches continue to be targeted at Modi, Amit Shah and the BJP ethos, peppering them with witty anecdotes and laced with trademark Hyderabadi humour.

The Prime Minister’s latest comments against Muslims, labelling them as “infiltrators” has come in handy for Owaisi to pitch this electoral contest on familiar lines. Would you vote for a party that calls you “infiltrators” and says you are producing more children, asks the MIM.

Madhavi Latha, from day one, has been alleging the existence of 6 lakh bogus votes which helps Owaisi to win every time. The BJP says her claim stands vindicated with the deletion of names of 5.4 lakh voters in the entire Hyderabad district since January 2023. These were either duplicate entries or voters who had either died or shifted out. Owaisi rubbishes the charge that he won on the basis of fake voters and wonders if he heads the Election Commission which is responsible for the preparation of electoral rolls.

Of the seven assembly constituencies under Hyderabad, the AIMIM has six legislators, while the BJP’s controversial Raja Singh won in Goshamahal. That makes the role of the Congress and the BRS minimal in this contest. In the past, whichever party Owaisi was friends with – the Congress during the times of YS Rajasekhara Reddy and later, the BRS – has fielded weak candidates to help the AIMIM sail smoothly. In the last two elections, both parties did not even log votes in double-digit percentage.

But it is not as if the electorate votes with its eyes closed. On the contrary, a close look at the assembly and Parliament election results in the past shows that it is quite discerning. The Muslim voter does not see Owaisi as a representative who has to take care of the drains and the power supply situation in the constituency. He sees him as a voice for the Muslim community in India who can stand up in the Lok Sabha and corner the government on issues relating to minorities in every part of India. That has been the secret of Owaisi’s electoral success as well.

But when it comes to the assembly elections, the voter knows the MLA is the person on the ground to take care of livelihood issues. Which explains why, in 2023, the MIM had to sweat it out in 2 of the 7 seats it won. It got a scare in Yakutpura, winning by a narrow margin of 878 votes and Nampally by 2037 votes.

For a long time, the AIMIM has been derided as the ‘B’ team of the BJP. If that is true, would the BJP really want Owaisi to be vanquished? This election is essentially a message to those sceptics to show that there is no truck between the two. At the same time, it won’t serve the BJP interest if Owaisi is defeated, given that it often uses him as a mascot to villainise elements within the Muslim community. In the Powerplay of the Indian Political League, the Hyderabad face-off is an attempt to check if the BJP Impact Player can push Owaisi on the back foot.

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