Hyderabad: BRS list Three Muslims, including two, for friendly fight make it

Hyderabad : Besides one sitting MLA from Bodhan Mohammed Shakeel Aamir, two other candidates from Charminar and Bahadurpura of the Old City find their names in the first list of BRS candidates released on Monday.

Both the Old City constituencies are considered to be strongholds of AIMIM. Given the alliance with the ruling BRS, both Ibrahim Lodi (Charminar) and Inayat Ali Baqri (Bahadurpura) are likely to contest in friendly fights. Baqri who served as SETWIN chairman also contested in 2018.

He managed to get 14,475, while the winner, Mohd Moazam Khan, received 96,993 votes. In 2018 Shakeel was the only candidate who contested from the ruling party and got 74,895 votes and won with a margin of over 8,000 against the nearest Congress rival.

Limiting to a few seats, that too as ‘dummy’ candidates drew flak from the community, as it has a population over 12 per cent which is in contrast to what Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had promised, the 10 per cent political representation.

“It's unfair. When the Muslim population in Telangana is approximately 12 to 14 per cent. why BRS has given two tickets to Muslims ? Muslims need their share in politics as we played a key role in separate Telangana movement,” posted Khalida Parveen, a socio-political activist, with some 60,000 followers on X, while tagging the Chief Minister.