With widening gap between the YSR Congress and the Majlis Itthehadul Muslimeen (MIM) becoming apparent, Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT) wants to inch closer to the former. This is the gamble the party intends to take to create political space for itself among the minority community, according to senior party leaders.
The party is ready to support YSRC candidates for the Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency and a few other Assembly constituencies in the city and its environs. Although the MBT party bigwigs are cagey about revealing any further details, they are keen on ensuring that the minority vote is not split which they feel will only help the BJP.
MBT floated by Mohd. Amanullah Khan in the year 1993 after snapping links with the MIM had won the Chandrayanagutta and Yakutpura assembly segments (Mumtaz Khan) just once in 1994 and ever since, from 1999 onwards Akbaruddin Owaisi had breached its fortress by winning the Chandrayanagutta seat in 1999, 2004 and 2009 defeating the party nominee Khayam Khan, elder son of Amanullah Khan.
The MBT has plans to contest all the seven assembly segments in the old city plus the Hyderabad Lok Sabha. It contested all seven in 2004 but just two in 2009 – Chandrayangutta and Yakutpura and lost.
Currently, Amjadullah Khan, younger son, is the lone public voice of the party and corporator from the Azampura municipal division of GHMC and earlier Chanchalguda, has been keeping the party name afloat by going after alleged inaction of civic officials on various issues and also on incidents of communal nature.
“We want to appeal to the Muslim intelligentsia and leaders to sit together and decide on which party or candidate to support in the forthcoming elections so that the community vote is not divided against the BJP,” says Mr. Khan.
AgendaFor over a month, the party has been conducting public meetings and conducting door-to-door campaign in different localities as a run up to the polls. “We have invited applications from interested candidates to contest the polls from our party. We are looking for people with good image and educational background, which means no cases on charges of land grabbing and other criminal offences,” he says.
Pointing towards the demographic change, he says the party wants to stand for the youth. “About 23 per cent of the voters are in the age group of 18-22, therefore, we want to concentrate on improving the educational levels like promising free education from KG to PG and supplying aids like laptops,” he explains. Revamping the civic infrastructure like roads, sewer lines, water supply and security to the locals tops its agenda.
