Hyderabad: MIM still in an unassailable position in its city citadel

Hyderabad: The Yakutpura Assembly constituency is considered to be the citadel of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) for the last several decades as at least 80 per cent of the voters belong to the Muslim community. MBT (Majlis Bachao Tehreek) party is the biggest rivalry against MIM in this constituency, while the candidates of BRS, INC and BJP parties are the contenders.

Yakutpura Assembly constituency is located in Hyderabad district of Telangana and comes under the Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency and one of the biggest constituencies and one of the 15 constituencies in Hyderabad City. Traditionally a part of Old City, this locality derives its name from ‘Yakut’, a Persian word means the precious stone ‘Ruby’.

The constituency includes the Yakutpura, Madannapet, Dabeerpura, Rein Bazar, Santosh Nagar areas. As per the estimates the constituency has over 2.9 lakh voters and Mumtaz Ahmed Khan represented the constituency for the last five terms, since 1994. For the first time he represented the off-shoot of MIM, the MBT and later contested as a MIM candidate since 1999 and was winning the seat.

In the 2018 elections, despite being a winning candidate in Yakutpura for the last five consecutive terms, Mumtaz Khan was replaced by Syed Ahmed Pasha Quadri who is a three-time winner from Charminar.

In the last two terms of the Assembly elections, in 2014, Mumtaz Khan won the seat with 66,843 votes with 46.1 per cent, while, BJP’s Ch Roop Raj stood second with 32,420 votes with 22.4 per cent, MBT’s Majeedullah got 28,793 votes with 19.9 per cent and BRS’s Md Shabbir Ali sealed least 7,862 votes with 5.4 per cent.

While in 2018, after swapping the seat between Pasha Quadri and Mumtaz Khan, MIM’s Pasha Quadri won the seat with majority of votes 69,595 with 49.7 per cent, BRS’s Sama Sunder Reddy received 22,617 votes 15.95 per cent, MBT’s Majeedullah stood 3rdwith 21,222 votes with 14.96 per cent, and BJP’s Ch Roop Raj bagged 16,608 votes with 11.71 per cent.

Each time MIM faced a tough challenge from MBT which pushed all its energies for winning this constituency as it had a considerable voter base and historically contested by the family member late Mohammed Amanullah Khan, the founder of MBT.

The candidate from the MBT is Majeeduallah Khan Farhat, who is also the president of the party. The leader has been alleging each time that the constituency has a huge number of bogus votes and despite several complaints to the Election Commission the list was not properly verified.

Besides these two parties, contestants from BJP and BRS are trying their best to beat the MIM in their dominant constituency.

In the last elections, TRS represented Sama Sunder Reddy, who was an active member of the party for the last several years in the constituency. BJP's Roop Raj has been an active member of the Old City Metro Rail JAC and worked in close coordination with Left and other political parties and represented the pressure group for bringing Metro to Old city.