Pumping iron and fighting elections are serious business. Known for strong pectorals and bulging biceps, Esa Misri, the Congress candidate for the Chandrayagutta Assembly seat in the Old City in Hyderabad, says he is contesting on the plank of development and public discourse without incendiary rhetoric.
His main rivals are candidates of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
In a free-wheeling interview to The Hindu , the 49-year-old second-generation athlete says, “All political parties are busy sowing seeds of discord between communities. Here, we are seeing a war of words, albeit obliquely, between the candidates of the AIMIM and the BJP. I want to stop politics based on religion. There is a need for clean politics, which will reach out to all sections of society. It is only when this happens that development will take place,” Mr. Misri says.
Home stretch
The bodybuilder-businessman politician traces his roots to Hadhramaut in Yemen. “I belong to the al-Misri tribe,” he says, adding that he is no stranger to the Chandrayagutta Assembly constituency. “My mother’s family is from there. My businesses are in the same area. I am practically from Chandrayagutta,” Mr. Misri says.
So, how does he plan to take on a formidable opponent like Akbaruddin Owaisi of the AIMIM, who has been the Chandrayangutta MLA for several terms? “I have met thousands of people over the past 11 months. They have told me they would support my candidature, that they would vote for me. They want change,” he says.
Mr. Misri says that constituents wanted to “change” former Chandrayagutta MLA and Majlis Bachao Tahreek founder Amanullah Khan and they did it. The time for another “change” has come, he says. Apart from clean politics, Mr. Misri plans to focus on healthcare. The need of the hour, he says, is to have better access to the public health system and affordable medicines. His sons, Ahmed Misri and Osman Misri, too, are body builders, and have won silver medals in an international championship.
