Senior All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi has managed to retain the Chandrayangutta constituency for the fifth consecutive time. He has defeated Esa Bin Obaid Misri of the Congress. Akbaruddin, the younger brother of AIMIM President and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, has held the seat since 1999.
The Congress had fielded Misri, a bodybuilder and gym trainer, to take on the senior AIMIM leader in the old city of Hyderabad, where the Majlis holds considerable influence.The BJP had fielded Syed Shehzadi, a Muslim woman who had worked her way up from the ABVP.
An AIMIM stronghold
Prior to Akbaruddin Owaisi, the seat was continuously held by Amanullah Khan, a politician considered close to Akbar’s father and former AIMIM President Salauddin Owaisi.
Amanullah Khan, who founded the Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT), was elected to the constituency since it was notified in 1978 until 1999, when Owaisi managed to defeat him.
In the recently concluded Telangana polls, the AIMIM contested from the seven main constituencies in old city – Malakpet, Karwan, Charminar, Chandrayangutta, Yakutpura, Nampally and Bahadurpura. It also fielded a candidate in Rajendranagar constituency in the city.
In 2014, Akbaruddin got 59.19% of the vote share with 80,393 votes while the runner up, Dr Khayam Khan from the MBT got only 15.55% of the vote share with 21,119 votes.
This time, the turnout in the constituency remained low at 46.11%.
The Election Commission on Saturday announced that 73.20 percent polling was registered in the Telangana Assembly elections on Friday. The announcement came more than 24 hours after the polling ended in all 119 constituencies. Over 2.8 crore people were eligible to vote.
This was the first Assembly elections in India's youngest state, Telangana. The previous elections were held in united Andhra Pradesh in 2014 and Telangana had recorded a turnout of 68.9 percent. Voter indifference in Hyderabad was visible as the state capital recorded the lowest turnout of 50 percent. The city saw a turnout of 53 percent in 2014.
(With inputs from IANS)